1 files changed, 16132 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/22584.txt b/22584.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..426fabd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22584.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,16132 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Four Years in Rebel Capitals, by T. C. DeLeon
+
+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: Four Years in Rebel Capitals
+       An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death
+
+Author: T. C. DeLeon
+
+Release Date: September 12, 2007 [EBook #22584]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOUR YEARS IN REBEL CAPITALS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FOUR YEARS IN REBEL CAPITALS:
+
+
+_AN INSIDE VIEW OF
+LIFE IN THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY,
+FROM BIRTH TO DEATH_
+
+
+
+FROM ORIGINAL NOTES, COLLATED IN THE YEARS 1861 TO 1865,
+
+BY T. C. DELEON,
+
+
+AUTHOR OF "CREOLE AND PURITAN," "CROSS PURPOSES," "JUNY," ETC.
+
+
+    "In the land where we were dreaming!"
+                                --_D. B. Lucas._
+
+    "I leave it to men's charitable speeches, to foreign, nations and
+    to the next ages."
+                                --_Francis Bacon._
+
+
+
+MOBILE, ALA.
+THE GOSSIP PRINTING COMPANY.
+
+1890.
+
+Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1890,
+By THE GOSSIP PRINTING COMPANY,
+In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
+
+
+
+
+TO MY VALUED FRIEND,
+
+MRS. AUGUSTA EVANS WILSON,
+
+AS ONE LITTLE TOKEN OF APPRECIATION OF A LIFE-WORK
+DEDICATE TO HER SEX, TO HER SECTION
+AND TO TRUTH,
+
+THESE SKETCHES
+
+OF LIFE BEHIND OUR CHINESE WALL
+ARE INSCRIBED.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: The advertisement with press comments for the
+author's book _Juny: or Only One Girl's Story_ has been moved to
+the end of this text.
+
+
+
+
+IN PLACE OF PREFACE.
+
+
+Fortunate, indeed, is the reader who takes up a volume without preface;
+of which the persons are left to enact their own drama and the author
+does not come before the curtain, like the chorus of Greek tragedy, to
+speak for them.
+
+But, in printing the pages that follow, it may seem needful to ask that
+they be taken for what they are; simple sketches of the inner life of
+"Rebeldom"--behind its Chinese wall of wood and steel--during those
+unexampled four years of its existence.
+
+Written almost immediately after the war, from notes and recollections
+gathered during its most trying scenes, these papers are now revised,
+condensed and formulated for the first time. In years past, some of
+their crude predecessors have appeared--as random articles--in the
+columns of the Mobile _Sunday Times_, Appleton's _Journal_, the
+Louisville _Courier-Journal_, the Philadelphia _Times_ and other
+publications.
+
+Even in their present condensation and revision, they claim only to be
+simple memoranda of the result of great events; and of their reaction
+upon the mental and moral tone of the southern people, rather than a
+record of those events themselves.
+
+This volume aspires neither to the height of history, nor to the depths
+of political analysis; for it may still be too early for either, or for
+both, of these. Equally has it resisted temptation to touch on many
+topics--not strictly belonging inside the Southern Capitals--still
+vexed by political agitation, or personal interest. These, if unsettled
+by dire arbitrament of the sword, must be left to Time and his best
+coadjutor, "sober second-thought."
+
+Campaigns and battles have already surfeited most readers; and their
+details--usually so incorrectly stated by the inexpert--have little to
+do with a relation of things within the Confederacy, as they then
+appeared to the masses of her people. Such, therefore, are simply
+touched upon in outline, where necessary to show their reaction upon
+the popular pulse, or to correct some flagrant error regarding that.
+
+To the vast majority of those without her boundaries--to very many,
+indeed, within them--realities of the South, during the war, were a
+sealed book. False impressions, on many important points, were
+disseminated; and these, because unnoted, have grown to proportions of
+accepted truth. A few of them, it may not yet be too late to correct.
+
+While the pages that follow fail not to record some weaknesses in our
+people, or some flagrant errors of their leaders, they yet endeavor to
+chronicle faithfully heroic constancy of men, and selfless devotion of
+women, whose peers the student of History may challenge that vaunting
+Muse to show.
+
+To prejudiced provincialism, on the one side, they may appear too
+lukewarm; by stupid fanaticism on the other, they may be called
+treasonable. But--written without prejudice, and equally without fear,
+or favor--they have aimed only at impartial truth, and at nearest
+possible correctness of narration.
+
+Indubitably the war proved that there were great men, on both the sides
+to it; and, to-day, the little men on either--"May profit by their
+example. If _this_ be treason, make the most of it!"
+
+The sole object kept in view was to paint honestly the inner life of
+the South; the general tone of her people, under strain and privation
+unparalleled; the gradual changes of society and character in the
+struggling nation--in a clear, unshaded outline of _things as they
+were_.
+
+Should this volume at all succeed in giving this; should it uproot one
+false impression, to plant a single true one in its place, then has it
+fully equaled the aspiration of
+
+THE AUTHOR.
+
+MOBILE, ALA., June 25, 1890.
+
+
+
+
+_TABLE OF CONTENTS._
+
+
+                                                                PAGE.
+
+CHAPTER I.--The Forehead of the Storm                           11-20
+
+Washington City in 1861. Her two Social Circles. Was she a new Sodom?
+Lobbyists and Diplomats. Eve of the Storm. Echo from Charleston Harbor.
+A Dinner and a Ball. Popular Views of the Situation. Buchanan's Policy
+and the "Peace Congress". Separation a Certainty. Preparations for the
+Hejira. Precautions for Lincoln's Inauguration. Off for Dixie.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.--The Cradle of the Confederacy                      21-29
+
+Through Richmond, the Carolinas and Georgia. Wayside Notes. The Masses
+Willing but Unprepared. Where were the Leaders? The First Capital. A
+New Flag. Hotels and their Patrons. Jefferson Davis. The Man and the
+Government. Social Matters. The Curbstone Congress. Early Views of the
+Struggle. A Notable "Mess."
+
+
+CHAPTER III.--Congress and Cabinet                              30-35
+
+Bloodless Revolution. Glances at the Congress. Its Personnel and its
+Work. Party Hacks in Place. Wind vs. Work. What People said of the
+Solons. The New Cabinet. Heads of Departments Sketched. The President's
+Advisers. Popular Opinion. The First Gun at Sumter.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.--"The Awakening of the Lion         ."              36-41
+
+Sumter's Effect on Public Feeling. Would There be a Long War--or any?
+Organizing an Army. The Will of the People. How Women Worked. The Camps
+a Novel Show. Mr. Davis handles Congress. His Energy and Industry.
+Society and the Strangers. Joy over Virginia's Secession.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.--A Southern River Boat Race                          42-48
+
+An Alabama Steamer. General Van Dorn. What River Travel is. A Calliope
+and its Master. Banter for a Race. Excitement of all on Board. A Close
+Shave. Neck and Neck. How a Race is Won. A Unique Toast.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.--Boat Life Afloat and Aground                       49-53
+
+Time-killers on the River. Negro Boat-hands. Cotton Loading from
+Slides. Overboard! "Fighting the Tiger". Hard Aground! Delay and
+Depression. Admiral Raphael Semmes. News of the Baltimore Riot.
+Speculation as to its Results.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.--Mobile, the Gulf City                             54-58
+
+Echo from Maryland. Alabama's Preparation. Mobile's Crack Corps. John
+Forsyth on the Peace Commissioners. Mobile Society. Pleasure-lovers and
+Their Pleasures. A Victim of the Tiger. Two Moral Axioms.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--New Orleans, the Crescent City                    59-68
+
+Location and Commercial Importance. Old Methods of Business. Relations
+of Planter and Factor. A typical Brokerage House. Secure Reliance on
+European Recognition and the Kingship of Cotton. Yellow Jack and his
+Treatment. French Town and America. Hotels of the day. Home Society and
+"The Heathen". Social Customs. Creole Women's Taste. Cuffee and Cant.
+Early Regiments and Crack Companies. Judges of Wine. A Champion Diner.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.--A Change of Base                                   69-74
+
+The Pensacola Army. Review by President Davis. Orders for Virginia.
+Breaking Camp on the Gulf. The Start of the Zouaves. They Capture a
+Train and a City. Pursuit and Recapture. The Riot and its Lesson. Early
+Ideas of Discipline.
+
+
+CHAPTER X.--En Route for the Border                             75-83
+
+Decision to Move the Capital. Lax Precautions. The New York "Tribune"
+Dispatch. Montgomery Murmurs. Troops _en route_, and their Feelings.
+The Government on Wheels. Kingsville Misnomer. Profanity and Diplomacy.
+Grimes' Brother-in-law. With the C.S. Mail-bags.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.--On to Richmond                                     84-92
+
+A Typical Southron. Sentiment in the Ranks. Glimpse of the new
+Capital. The Inflowing Caravans. Hotels and Boarding-houses. City
+and Surroundings. A Southern Poet. A Warning in Statuary. Hollywood
+Cemetery. The Tredegar Works. Their Importance in the War. 'T'other
+Consarn!
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.--Settling to the Real Work                        93-101
+
+Regulars of the States. Virginia Sentiment. Unanimity of Purpose. Lee
+and Johnston. Esprit de Corps. Centering on Virginia. Varied Types of
+Different States. The Marylanders at the South. Mixed Equipments and
+"Properties". Doubtful Points. Norfolk to Manassas. Where the Battle
+Ground would be. Missouri's First Move.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.--The Leaders and the Led                        102-110
+
+General Lee comes to the Front. Mr. Davis' Labors and Responsibilities.
+His Personal Popularity. Social Feeling at the new Capital. "Pawnee
+Sunday" Panic. Richmond Society. An After-dinner Object Lesson. How
+Good Blood did not Lie. Western Virginia. Society's Pets go to the
+Front. "The Brave at Home."
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.--The Baptism of Blood                            111-121
+
+The First War Bulletin. How Richmond received It. Practical Result of
+Bethel. Earnest Work in Government Bureaux. Thunder from a Clear Sky.
+Shadows follow Rich Mountain. _Carthago delenda!_ Popular Comparison
+of Fighting Qualities. The "On-to-Richmond!" Clangor. The Southern
+Pulse. "Beware of Johnston's Retreats!" Bull Run. The Day before
+Manassas. Waiting!
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.--After Manassas                                   122-128
+
+How Rumors came. Jubilation and Revulsion. Anxiety for News. The
+Decisive Charge. An Austrian View. The President's Return. His Speech
+to the People. The First Train of Wounded. Sorrow and Consolation. How
+Women Worked. Material and Moral Results of Manassas. Spoils and
+Overconfidence. Singular Errors in Public Mind. General Belief in
+Advance. The Siesta and its Dreams.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.--The Spawn of Lethargy                           129-138
+
+Reaction of Sentiment. Conflicting Ideas about Inaction. Popular Wish
+for Aggressive War. Sentiment settles to Fact. Mr. Davis' Attitude to
+Johnston and Beauregard. After-battle Confusion. Strategic Reasons.
+Inaction breeds grave Discontent. Effect on the Army. Sober Second
+Thought. Government Use of the Lull. Bombast and Sense. A Glance North.
+The Western Outlook. John B. Floyd.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.--From Court to Camp                             139-146
+
+A Winter's Inaction and Effects. Comforts and Homesickness. Unseen Foes
+and Their Victory. Care and Cleanliness. _Nostalgia._ Camp Morality.
+Record of the "Cracks". In a Maryland Mess. Mud and Memories. Has
+History a Parallel? Old Cavaliers and New.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.--Society at the Capital                        147-157
+
+Richmond Overflowing. Variety of Visitors. Gradual Growth of Gayety.
+"Danceable Teas". Amateur Benefits. "Youth at the Helm". A Society
+Woman's View. Social Theories and Practice. Virginian Hospitality.
+Quieter Sociability. The Presidential Household. Mr. and Mrs. Davis.
+Formal Levees. Social Ethics. Dissipation. Disappointing Solons.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.--Days of Depression                              158-165
+
+Reverses on All Lines. Zollicoffer's Death. Mr. Benjamin, Secretary of
+War. Transportation Dangers. The Tennessee River Forts. Forrest, and
+Morgan. Gloom follows Nashville's Fall. Government Blamed by People.
+The Permanent Government. Mr. Davis' Typical Inaugural. Its Effect and
+Its Sequence. Cabinet Changes.
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.--From Shiloh to New Orleans                       166-173
+
+Sunshine and Shadow. Clouds gather in the West. Island No. 10. Shiloh.
+Illustrative Valor. Deep Depression. Was Johnston hounded to His Death?
+Fall of New Orleans. Odd Situation of Her Captors. Butler in Command.
+His Place in Southern Opinion. Strategic Results. Popular Discontent.
+Effect on the Fighters. Butler and the Women. Louisiana Soldiers.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.--The Conscription and Its Consequences           174-188
+
+The "More Men!" cry. Passage of the Act. State Troops Turned Over.
+Appointment of Generals. Longings for Home. Exemptions and "Details".
+The Substitute Law. Mr. Davis' Wisdom Vindicated. Governor Joe Brown
+kicks. State Traits of the Conscripts. Kentucky's Attitude. Tennessee's
+"Buffaloes". The "Union Feeling" Fallacy. Conscript Camps. Morals of
+the "New Ish". Food and Money Scarcer. Constancy of the Soldiers. The
+Extension Law. Repeal of the Substitute Act. Home-Guards. "The Cradle
+and the Grave."
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.--Waiting the Ordeal by Combat                   189-197
+
+The North Prepares a New "On to Richmond.". Joe Johnston's Strategy.
+From Manassas to Richmond. Magruder's Lively Tactics. The Defenders
+Come. Scenes of the March Through. A Young Veteran. Public Feeling.
+Williamsburg's Echo. The Army of Specters. Ready! Drewry's Bluff. The
+Geese Fly South. Stern Resolve!
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.--Around Richmond                               198-206
+
+Seven Pines. War at the Very Gates. Harrowing Scenes. Woman's Heroism.
+Crowded Hospitals. A Lull. Jackson's Meteor Campaign. Ashby Dead! The
+Week of Blood. Southern Estimate of McClellan. What "Might Have Been".
+Richmond Under Ordeal. "The Battle Rainbow". Sad Sequelae. Real Sisters
+of Mercy. Beautiful Self-sacrifice.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.--Echoes of Seven Days, North and South          207-214
+
+Confederates Hopeful, but Not Overconfident. The Cost to the North.
+McClellan Sacrificed. General Pope and His Methods. He "Finds" Jackson
+at Cedar Mountain. A Glance Trans-Allegheny. Well-Conceived Federal
+Programme. General Bragg's Unpopularity. To the Ohio and Back. Would-be
+Critics. Flashes illumine the Clouds. Kentucky Misrepresented.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.--The War in the West                             215-222
+
+A Gloomy Outlook. Lone Jack. "The Butcher, McNeil". Corinth and
+Murfreesboro. Their Bloody Cost. The Cry Wrung from the People. Mr.
+Davis stands Firm. Johnston relieves Bragg. The Emancipation
+Proclamation. Magruder's Galveston Amphiboid. The Atlantic Seaboard.
+Popular Estimate of the Status. Hope for the New Year.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.--The Failure of Finance                         223-229
+
+Was Cotton really King? How it Might have been Made So. Government's
+Policy. Comparison with Northern Finance. Why the South believed in her
+Advantage. How the North buoyed up her Credit. Contractors and
+Bondholders. Feeling at the South on the Money Question. Supply and
+Demand for Paper. Distrust creeps In. Rapid Depreciation.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.--Dollars, Cents and Less                       230-240
+
+Results of Inflation. Comparative Cost of Living North and South. How
+Army and Officials were Paid. Suffering enhances Distrust. Barter
+Currency. Speculation's Vultures. The Auction Craze. Hoarding Supplies.
+Gambling. Richmond Faro-banks. Men met There. Death of Confederate
+Credit. The President and Secretary held to Account. Nothing but
+Mismanagement.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII--Across the Potomac and Back                   241-250
+
+Precedents of the First Maryland Campaign. Jackson strikes Pope. Second
+Manassas. Why was Victory not Pushed? The People demand Aggressive
+Warfare. Over the River. Harper's Ferry falls. Elation at the South.
+Rosy Prophecies. Sharpsburg. The River Recrossed. Gloom in Richmond.
+Fredericksburg and its Effect on the People. Why on Pursuit? Hooker
+replaces Burnside. Death of Stonewall Jackson.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.--Over Again to Gettysburg                       251-258
+
+Popular Grief for Jackson. Again to the River. Winchester and her
+Women. The People Rejoice at the Advance. Public Belief in its Result.
+Washington to Fall; the War to End. The Prelude to Disaster. Second Day
+at Gettysburg. Pickett's Wonderful Charge. Some one has Blundered? How
+the Story came South. Revulsion and Discontent. Lee not Blamed.
+Strictures on Non-retaliation. The Marylanders.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.--The Confederacy Afloat                          259-271
+
+Who the Southern Sailors were. Regular and Provisional Navy-bills.
+Popular Estimate of Mr. Mallory. Iron-clads vs. Cruisers. The Parole
+of "Pirate Semmes". What Iron-clads might have done. Treasury and
+Navy. The "Merrimac". Virginia Fight in Hampton Roads. The White-flag
+Violation. Those wonderful Wooden Shells. Other flashing Achievements.
+Comparison of the two Navies. Doubtful Torpedo Results. Summing up the
+Hue-and-Cry. Nashville and New Orleans. The Tatnall-"Virginia"
+Court-martial. Who did More than They?
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.--The Chinese Wall Blockade, Abroad and at Home  272-287
+
+Foundation Errors. Lost Opportunity. The Treaty of Paris View. First
+Southern Commissioners. Doubts. The Mason-Slidell Incident. Mr.
+Benjamin's Foreign Policy. DeLeon's Captured Despatches. Murmurs
+Loud and Deep. England's Attitude. Other Great Powers. Mr. Davis'
+View. "If". Interest of the Powers. The Optimist View. Production
+and Speculation. Blockade Companies. Sumptuary Laws. Growth of Evil
+Power. Charleston and Savannah. Running the Fleet at Wilmington.
+Demoralization and Disgust. The Mississippi Closed. Vicksburg.
+"Running the Bloc." on the Border. The Spy System. Female Agents.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.--Press, Literature and Art                     288-301
+
+Newspapers North and South. Ability Differently Used. Reasons Therefor.
+Criticism of Affairs; its Effect. Magazines and their Clientele. Prose
+Writers ante bellum. Rebel War Rhymes. Origin and Characteristics. The
+Northern "National Hymn". Famous Poets and Their Work. Dirge Poetry and
+Prison Songs. Father Ryan and the Catholic Church. "Furled Forever!"
+Musical Taste. How Songs were Utilized. Military Bands. Painters and
+Paintings. No Southern Art. A Few Noted Pictures.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.--Wit and Humor of the War                     302-315
+
+Strange Laughter. The Confederate "Mother Goose". Travesty and Satire.
+The "Charles Lamb" of Richmond. Camp Wit. Novel Marriage. A
+"Skirmisher". Prison Humor. Even in Vicksburg! Sad Bill-of-Fare.
+Northern Misconception. Richmond Society Wit. The "Mosaic Club" and
+its Components. Innes Randolph's Forfeit. The Colonel's Breakfast
+Horror. Post-surrender Humor. Even the Emancipated.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.--The Beginning of the End                      316-326
+
+Gradual Weakening of the South. The Wearing-out Process. Sequelae of
+Vicksburg and Gettysburg. Congress _vs._ President. Mr. Foote and
+his Following. Drain of Men and Material. Home Guards. The "Speculator
+Squad". Dire Straits in Camp and Home. Carpet Blankets. Raids and their
+Results. Breaking down of Cavalry Mounts. Echoes of Morgan's Ohio Dash.
+His Bold Escape. Cumberland Gap. A Glance at Chickamauga. "The Might
+Have Been" Once More. Popular Discontent. General Grant Judged by his
+Compeers. Longstreet at Knoxville. Missionary Ridge. President's Views
+and People's. Again the Virginia Lines. Skirmish Depletion. Desertions.
+"Kir-by-Smithdom."
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.--The Upper and Nether Millstones                327-335
+
+"Crushing the Spine of Rebellion". Grant's Quadruple Plan. The Western
+Giant. Why its Back Broke. _Delenda est Atlanta!_ Grant becomes
+the Upper Millstone. Men and Means Unstinted. Dahlgren's Raid. The
+South's Feeling. The Three Union Corps. War in the Wilderness. Rumors
+North and South. Spottsylvania. Still to the Left! Cold Harbor Again.
+The "Open Door" Closed. Glance at Grant's Campaign. Cost of Reaching
+McClellan's Base. Sledge-Hammer Strategy. Solemn Joy in Richmond.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.--"The Land of Darkness and the
+                Shadow of Death"                              336-346
+
+Comparison of Numbers. The Ratio of Loss. The Process of Attrition.
+Stuart's Last Fight. The River Approaches. Beauregard "bottles" Butler.
+Grant sits down Before Petersburg. "Swapping with Boot". Feeling of the
+Southern People. The Lines in Georgia. Military Chess. Different
+Methods of Sherman and Grant. Southern View. Public Confidence in
+Johnston. Hood relieves Him. How Received by the People. The Army
+Divided. "The Back Door" Opened at Last! Mr. Davis visits Hood's Army.
+The Truce and the Chances. On the Rack.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.--Dies Irae--Dies Illa!                         347-359
+
+The Lull at Petersburg. Strain on Army and People. North and South
+Waiting. Fears for Richmond. After Atlanta. Peace Propositions. Mr.
+Davis' Attitude. Mr. Stephens' Failure at Fortress Monroe. Hood's Fatal
+Move. Results of Franklin. Strange Gayeties in Richmond. From the Dance
+to the Grave. "Starvations" and Theatricals. Evacuation Rumors. Only
+Richmond Left. Joe Johnston Reinstated. Near Desperation. Grant
+Strikes. The News in Church. Evacuation Scenes. The Mob and the Stores.
+Firing Warehouses. The Last Reb Leaves. Fearful Farewells. Dead!
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.--After the Death-Blow was Dealt              360-372
+
+The Form of Surrender. Federals march In. Richmond in Flames.
+Blue-Coats fight the Fire. Sad Scenes. Automatic Shelling. Discipline
+Wins. At the Provost-Marshal's. A City of the Dead. Starvation plus
+Suspense. The Tin-Can Brigade. Drawing Rations. Rumors and Reality.
+The First Gray Jacket returns. General Lee re-enters Richmond. Woman,
+the Comforter. Lincoln's Assassination. Resulting Rigors. Baits for
+Sociability. How Ladies acted. Lectures by Old Friends. The Emigration
+Mania. Fortunate Collapse of Agreement. The Negro's Status. To Work, or
+Starve. Woman's Aid. Dropping the Curtain.
+
+
+
+
+FOUR YEARS IN REBEL CAPITALS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE FOREHEAD OF THE STORM.
+
+
+The cloud no bigger than a man's hand had risen.
+
+It became visible to all in Washington over the southern horizon. All
+around to East and West was but the dull, dingy line of the storm that
+was soon to burst in wild fury over that section, leaving only seared
+desolation in its wake. Already the timid and wary began to take in
+sail and think of a port; while the most reckless looked from the
+horizon to each other's faces, with restless and uneasy glances.
+
+In the days of 1860, as everybody knows, the society of Washington city
+was composed of two distinct circles, tangent at no one point. The
+larger, outer circle whirled around with crash and fury several months
+in each year; then, spinning out its centrifugal force, flew into
+minute fragments and scattered to extreme ends of the land. The smaller
+one--the inner circle--revolved sedately in its accustomed grooves,
+moving no whit faster for the buzz of the monster that surrounded and
+half hid it for so long; and when that spun itself to pieces moved on
+as undisturbed as Werther's Charlotte.
+
+The outer circle drew with it all the outside population, all the
+"dwellers in tents," from the busiest lobbyman to the laziest
+looker-on. All the "hotel people"--those caravans that yearly poured
+unceasing into the not too comfortable _caravanserai_ down
+town--stretched eager hands toward this circle; for, to them, it meant
+Washington. Having clutched an insecure grasp upon its rim, away they
+went with a fizz and a spin, dizzy and delighted--devil take the
+hindmost! Therein did the thousand lobbyists, who yearly came to roll
+logs, pull wires and juggle through bills, find their congenial prey.
+
+Who shall rise up and write the secret history of that wonderful
+committee and of the ways and means it used to prey impartially upon
+government and client? Who shall record the "deeds without a name,"
+hatched out of eggs from the midnight terrapin; the strange secrets
+drawn out by the post-prandial corkscrew? Who shall justly calculate
+the influence the lobby and its workings had in hastening that
+inevitable, the war between the states?
+
+Into this outer circle whirled that smaller element which came to the
+Capital to spend money--not to make it. Diamonds flash, point lace
+flounces flaunt! Who will stop that mighty whirligig to inspect whether
+the champagne is real, or the turtle is prime?
+
+_Allons! le jeu est fait!_
+
+Camp-followers and hangers-on of Congress, many of its members from the
+West, claim agents from Kansas, husbandless married women from
+California and subterranean politicians from everywhere herein found
+elements as congenial as profitable. All stirred into the great _olla
+podrida_ and helped to "Make the hell broth boil and bubble."
+
+The inner circle was the real society of Washington. Half submerged for
+half of each year by accumulating streams of strangers, it ever rose
+the same--fresh and unstained by deposit from the baser flood. Therein,
+beyond doubt, one found the most cultured coteries, the courtliest
+polish and the simplest elegance that the drawing-rooms of this
+continent could boast. The bench and the bar of the highest court lent
+their loftiest intellects and keenest wits. Careful selections were
+there from Congress of those who held senates on their lips and kept
+together the machinery of an expanding nation; and those "rising men,"
+soon to replace, or to struggle with them, across the narrow Potomac
+near by. To this society, too, the foreign legations furnished a strong
+element. Bred in courts, familiar with the theories of all the world,
+these men must prove valuable and agreeable addition to any society
+into which they are thrown.
+
+It is rather the fashion just now to inveigh against foreigners in
+society, to lay at their door many of the peccadilloes that have crept
+into our city life; but the diplomats are, with rare exceptions, men of
+birth, education and of proved ability in their own homes. Their ethics
+may be less strict than those which obtain about Plymouth Rock, but
+experience with them will prove that, however loose their own code,
+they carefully conform to the custom of others; that if they have any
+scars across their morals, they have also the tact and good taste to
+keep them decorously draped from sight.
+
+In the inner circle of Washington were those officers of the army and
+navy, selected for ability or service--or possibly "by grace of
+cousinship"--to hold posts near the government; and, with full
+allowance for favoritism, some of these were men of culture, travel and
+attainment--most of them were gentlemen. And the nucleus, as well as
+the amalgam of all these elements, was the resident families of old
+Washingtonians. These had lived there so long as to be able to winnow
+the chaff and throw the refuse off.
+
+There has ever been much talk about the corruption of Washington, easy
+hints about Sodom, with a general sweep at the depravity of its social
+system. But it is plain these facile fault-finders knew no more of its
+inner circle--and for its resident society only is any city
+responsible--than they did of the court of the Grand Turk. Such critics
+had come to Washington, had made their "dicker," danced at the hotel
+hops, and been jostled on the Avenue. If they essayed an entrance into
+the charmed circle, they failed.
+
+Year after year, even the Titans of the lobby assailed the gates of
+that heaven refused them; and year after year they fell back, baffled
+and grommelling, into the pit of that outer circle whence they came.
+Yet every year, especially in the autumn and spring, behind that
+Chinese wall was a round of entertainments less costly than the crushes
+of the critic circle, but stamped with quiet elegance aped in vain by
+the non-elect. And when the whirl whirled out at last, with the departing
+Congress; when the howling crowd had danced its mad _carmagnole_ and
+its vulgar echoes had died into distance, then Washington society was
+itself again. Then the sociality of intercourse--that peculiar charm
+which made it so unique--became once more free and unrestrained.
+
+Passing from the reek of a hotel ball, or the stewing soiree of a
+Cabinet secretary into the quiet _salon_ of a West End home, the
+very atmosphere was different, and comparison came of itself with that
+old _Quartier Saint Germain_, which kept undefiled from the pitch
+that smirched its Paris, through all the hideous dramas of the
+_bonnet rouge_.
+
+The influence of political place in this country has long spawned a
+social degradation. Where the gift is in the hands of a fixed power,
+its seeking is lowering enough; but when it is besought from the
+enlightened voter himself, "the scurvy politician" becomes a reality
+painfully frequent. Soliciting the ballot over a glass of green corn
+juice in the back room of a country grocery, or flattering the _cara
+sposa_ of the farmhouse, with squalling brat upon his knee, is
+scarcely calculated to make the best of men more of "an ornament to
+society." Constant contact with sharpers and constant effort to be
+sharper than they is equally as apt to blunt his sense of delicacy as
+it is to unfit one for higher responsibilities of official station. So
+it was not unnatural that that society of Washington, based wholly on
+politics, was not found wholly clean. But under the seething
+surface--first visible to the casual glance--was a substratum as pure
+as it was solid and unyielding.
+
+Habitues of twenty years remarked that, with all the giddy whirl of
+previous winters in the outer circle, none had approached in mad
+rapidity that of 1860-61. The rush of aimless visiting, matinees and
+dinners, balls and suppers, followed each other without cessation;
+dress and diamonds, equipage and cards, all cost more than ever before.
+This might be the last of it, said an uneasy sense of the coming storm;
+and in the precedent sultriness, the thousands who had come to make
+money vied with the tens who came to spend it in mad distribution of
+the proceeds. Madame, who had made an immense investment of somebody's
+capital in diamonds and lace, must let the world see them. Mademoiselle
+must make a certain exhibit of shapely shoulders and of telling stride
+in the German; and time was shortening fast. And Knower, of the Third
+House, had put all the proceeds of engineering that last bill through,
+into gorgeous plate. It would never do to waste it, for Knower meant
+business; and this might be the end of the thing.
+
+So the stream rushed on, catching the weak and timid ones upon its
+brink and plunging them into the whirling vortex. And still the rusty
+old wheels revolved, as creakily as ever, at the Capital. Blobb, of
+Oregon, made machine speeches to the sleepy House, but neither he, nor
+they, noted the darkening atmosphere without. Senator Jenks took his
+half-hourly "nip" with laudable punctuality, thereafter rising eloquent
+to call Mr. President's attention to that little bill; and all the
+while that huge engine, the lobby, steadily pumped away in the
+political basement, sending streams of hot corruption into every artery
+of the government.
+
+Suddenly a sullen reverberation echoes over the Potomac from the South.
+The long-threatened deed is done at last. South Carolina has seceded,
+and the first link is rudely stricken from the chain.
+
+There is a little start; that is all. The Third House stays for a
+second its gold spoon; and, perhaps, a trifle of the turtle spills
+before reaching its mouth. Madame rearranges her parure and smoothes
+her ruffled lace; while Mademoiselle pouts a little, then studies her
+card for the next waltzer. Senator Jenks takes his "nip" just a trifle
+more regularly; and Blobb, of Oregon, draws a longer breath before his
+next period. As for the lobby-pump, its piston grows red-hot and its
+valves fly wide open, with the work it does; while thicker and more
+foul are the streams it sends abroad.
+
+For awhile there is some little talk around Willard's about the
+"secesh;" and the old soldiers wear grave faces as they pass to and fro
+between the War Department and General Scott's headquarters. But to the
+outer circle, it is only a nine-day wonder; while the dancing and
+dining army men soon make light of the matter.
+
+But the stone the surface closes smoothly over at the center makes
+large ripples at the edges. Faces that were long before now begin to
+lengthen; and thoughtful men wag solemn heads as they pass, or pause to
+take each other by the buttonhole. More frequent knots discuss the
+status in hotel lobbies and even in the passages of the departments;
+careful non-partisans keep their lips tightly closed, and hot talk,
+_pro_ or _con_, begins to grow more popular.
+
+One day I find, per card, that the Patagonian Ambassador dines me at
+seven. As it is not a state dinner I go, to find it even more stupid.
+At dessert the reserve wears off and all soon get deep in the "Star of
+the West" episode.
+
+"Looks mighty bad now, sir. Something must be done, sir, and soon,
+too," says Diggs, a hard-working M.C. from the North-west. "But, as
+yet, I don't see--what, exactly!"
+
+"Will your government use force to supply Fort Sumter?" asks Count B.,
+of the Sardinian legation.
+
+"If so, it might surely drive out those states so doubtful now, that
+they may not go to extremes," suggested the Prussian _charge ad
+interim_.
+
+"Why, they'll be whipped back by the army and navy within ninety days
+from date," remarks a gentleman connected with pension brokerage.
+
+"If part of the army and navy does not go to get whipped with them,"
+growls an old major of the famed Aztec Club. And the scar across the
+nose, that he brought away from the Belen Gate, grows very uncomfortably
+purple.
+
+"By Jove! I weally believes he means it! Weally!" whispers very young
+Savile Rowe, of H.B.M. legation. "Let's get wid of these politics.
+Dwop in at Knower's; soiwee, you know;" and Savile tucks his arm under
+mine.
+
+Two blocks away we try to lose uncomfortable ideas in an atmosphere of
+spermaceti, hot broadcloth, jockey club and terrapin.
+
+"Next quadwille, Miss Wose?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Mr. Rowe; and--the third galop--let me see--the fifth waltz.
+And oh! isn't it nasty of those people in South Carolina! Why _don't_
+they behave themselves? Oh, dear! what a lovely color Karmeen Sorser
+has to-night! _Au revoir_!" and Miss Rose Ruche glides off, _a deux
+temps_, on the arm of the Turkish _charge_.
+
+As I stroll through the rooms, there is much glaring light and there
+are many nude necks. I am jostled by polking damsels and button-holed
+by most approved bores. But, through the blare of the brass horns and
+over the steaming terrapin, the one subject rises again and again,
+refusing burial as persistently as Eugene Aram's old man.
+
+"Try a glass of this punch," Knower chirps cheerily. "Devilish good
+punch! Good glass, too. See the crest and the monogram blowed in. Put
+Kansas Coal Contriver's Company proceeds into that glass. But things
+_are_ looking blue, sir, devilish blue; and I don't see the way
+out at all. Fact is, I'm getting pretty down in the mouth!" And the
+lobbyist put a bumper of punch in the same position. "People may talk,
+sir, but my head's as long as the next, and I don't see the way out.
+Washington's dead, sir; dead as a hammer, if this secession goes on.
+Why, what'll become of our business if they move the Capital? Kill us,
+sir; kill us! Lots of southern members leaving already"--and Knower's
+voice sunk to a whisper--"and would you believe it? I heard of nine
+resignations from the army to-day. Gad, sir! had it from the best
+authority. That means business, I'm afraid." And little by little the
+conviction dawned on all classes that it did mean business--ugly, real
+business. What had been only mutterings a few weeks back grew into
+loud, defiant speech. Southern men, in and out of Congress, banded
+under their leading spirits, boldly and emphatically declared what they
+meant to do. Never had excitement around the Capitol run half so high.
+Even the Kansas-Nebraska furore had failed to pack the Senate galleries
+so full of men and women, struggling for seats and sitting sometimes
+through the night. One after another the southern leaders made their
+valedictories--some calm and dignified, some hot and vindictive--and
+left the seats they had filled for years. One after another, known and
+honored names were stricken from the army and navy lists, by resignation.
+One after another, states met in convention and, by "ordinance of
+secession," declared themselves independent of the Federal Government.
+It was as though the train had been prepared and the action of South
+Carolina was but the lighting of the fuse. Within six weeks from Mr.
+Buchanan's New Year reception, six states had deliberately gone out of
+the Union.
+
+When it was too late, the sleepy administration opened its eyes. Not
+liking the looks of things, it shut them again. When it was too late,
+there were windy declarations and some feeble temporizing; but all
+thinking men felt that the crisis had come and nothing could avert it.
+The earthquake that had rumbled so long in premonitory throes suddenly
+yawned in an ugly chasm, that swallowed up the petty differences of
+each side. One throb and the little lines of party were roughly
+obliterated; while across the gulf that gaped between them, men glared
+at each other with but one meaning in their eyes.
+
+That solemn mummery, the "Peace Congress," might temporarily have
+turned the tide it was wholly powerless to dam; but the arch seceder,
+Massachusetts, manipulated even that slight chance of compromise. The
+weaker elements in convention were no match for the peaceful Puritan
+whom war might profit, but could not injure. Peace was pelted from
+under her olive with splinters of Plymouth Rock, and Massachusetts
+members poured upon the troubled waters oil--of vitriol!
+
+When the "Peace Commissioners" from the southern Congress at Montgomery
+came to Washington, all felt their presence only a mockery. It was too
+late! they came only to demand what the government could not then
+concede, and every line they wrote was waste of ink, every word they
+spoke waste of breath. Southern congressmen were leaving by every
+train. Families of years residence were pulling down their household
+gods and starting on a pilgrimage to set them up--where they knew not,
+save it must be in the South. Old friends looked doubtfully at each
+other, and wild rumors were rife of incursions over the Potomac by
+wild-haired riders from Virginia. Even the fungi of the departmental
+desks, seeming suddenly imbued with life, rose and threw away their
+quills--and with them the very bread for their families--to go South.
+It was the modern hegira!
+
+A dull, vague unrest brooded over Washington, as though the city had
+been shadowed with a vast pall, or threatened with a plague. Then when
+it was again too late, General Scott--"the general," as the hero of
+Lundy's Lane and Mexico was universally known--virtually went into the
+Cabinet, practically filling the chair that Jefferson Davis had
+vacated. Men felt that they must range themselves on one side, or the
+other, for the South had spoken and meant what she said. There might be
+war; there must be separation!
+
+I was lounging slowly past the rampant bronze Jackson in Lafayette
+Square when Styles Staple joined me.
+
+"When do you start?" was his salutation.
+
+"When do I start?" Staple's question was a sudden one.
+
+"Yes, for the South? You're going of course; and the governor writes me
+to be off at once. Better go together. Eh? Night boat, 4th of March."
+
+Now the governor mentioned was not the presiding executive of a
+southern state, but was Staple _pere_, of the heavy cotton firm of
+Staple, Long & Middling, New Orleans. Staple _fils_ had been for
+years a great social card in Washington. The clubs, the legations, the
+avenues and the german knew him equally well; and though he talked
+about "the house," his only visible transaction with it was to make
+the name familiar to bill-brokers by frequent drafts. So I answered the
+question by another:
+
+"What are you going to do when you get there?"
+
+"Stop at Montgomery, see the Congress, draw on 'the house,' and then t'
+Orleans," he answered cheerfully. "Come with me. Lots to see; and, no
+doubt, about plenty to do. If this sky holds, all men will be wanted.
+As you're going the sooner the better. What do you say? Evening boat,
+March 4th? Is it a go?"
+
+It gave only two days for preparation to leave what had come nearer
+being home that any other place in a nomadic life. But he was right. I
+was going, and we settled the matter, and separated to wind up our
+affairs and take _conge_.
+
+The night before President Lincoln's inauguration was a restless and
+trying one to every man in Washington. Nervous men heard signal for
+bloody outbreak in every unfamiliar sound. Thoughtful ones peered
+beyond the mist and saw the boiling of the mad breakers, where eight
+millions of incensed and uncontrolled population hurled themselves
+against the granite foundation of the established government. Selfish
+heads tossed upon sleepless pillows, haunted by the thought that the
+dawn would break upon a great change, boding ruin to their prospects,
+monetary or political. Even the butterflies felt that there was a
+something impending; incomprehensible, but uncomfortably suggestive of
+work instead of pleasure. So Washington rose red-eyed and unrefreshed
+on the 4th of March, 1861.
+
+Elaborate preparations had been made to have the day's ceremonial
+brilliant and imposing beyond precedent. Visiting militia and civil
+organizations from every quarter--North, East and West--had been
+collecting for days, and meeting reception more labored than
+spontaneous. The best bands of the country had flocked to the Capital,
+to drown bad blood in the blare of brass; and all available cavalry and
+artillery of the regular army had been hastily rendezvoused, for the
+double purpose of spectacle and security. Still the public mind was
+feverish and unquiet; and the post commandant was like the public mind.
+
+Rumors were again rife of raids over the Potomac, with Henry A. Wise or
+Ben McCullough at their head; nightmares of plots to rob the Treasury
+and raze the White House sat heavy on the timid; while extremists
+manufactured long-haired men, with air guns, secreted here and there
+and sworn to shoot Mr. Lincoln, while reading his inaugural.
+
+All night long, orderlies were dashing to and fro at breakneck speed;
+and guard details were marching to all points of possible danger. Day
+dawn saw a light battery drawn up on G street facing the Treasury, guns
+unlimbered and ready for action; while infantry held both approaches to
+the Long Bridge across the Potomac. Other bodies of regulars were
+scattered at points most available for rapid concentration; squadrons
+of cavalry were stationed at the crossings of several avenues; and all
+possible precautions were had to quell summarily any symptoms of riot.
+
+These preparations resembling more the capital of Mexico than that of
+the United States, were augury of the peace of the administration thus
+ushered in! Happily, they were needless. All who remember that
+inauguration will recall the dull, dead quiet with which the day passed
+off. The very studiousness of precaution took away from the enjoyment
+of the spectacle even; and a cloud was thrown over the whole event by
+the certainty of trouble ahead. The streets were anxious and all gayety
+showed effort, while many lowering faces peeped at the procession from
+windows and housetops.
+
+It was over at last. The new man had begun with the new era; and Staple
+and I had finished our _chasse_ at Wormley's dinner table, when that
+worthy's pleasant, yellow face peered in at the door.
+
+As we jumped into the carriage awaiting us and Wormley banged the door,
+a knot of loungers ran up to say good-bye. They were all
+men-about-town; and if not very dear to each other, it was still a
+wrench to break up associations with those whose faces had been
+familiar to every dinner and drive and reception for years. We had
+never met but in amity and amid the gayest scenes; now we were plunging
+into a pathless future. Who could tell but a turn might bring us face
+to face, where hands would cross with a deadly purpose; while the hiss
+of the Minie-ball sang accompaniment in place of the last galop that
+Louis Weber had composed.
+
+"Better stay where you are, boys!"--"You're making a bad thing of
+it!"--"Don't leave us Styles, old fellow!"--"You'll starve down South,
+sure!"--were a few of the hopeful adieux showered at us.
+
+"Thank you all, just the same, but I think we won't stay," Staple
+responded. "What would 'the house' do? God bless you, boys! Good-bye,
+Jim!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+"THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY."
+
+
+Evening had fallen as evening can fall only in early Washington spring.
+As we plunged into the low, close cabin of the Acquia Creek steamer of
+that day, there was a weak light, but a strong smell of kerosene and
+whisky. Wet, steamy men huddled around the hot stove, talking blatant
+politics in terms as strong as their liquor. So, leaving the reek
+below, we faced the storm on deck, vainly striving to fix the familiar
+city lights as they faded through the mist and rain; more vainly still
+peering into the misty future, through driving fancies chasing each
+other in the brain.
+
+The journey south in those days was not a delight. Its components were
+discomfort, dust and doubt. As we rattled through at gray of dawn,
+Richmond was fast asleep, blissfully ignorant of that May morning when
+she would wake to find herself famous, with the eyes of all the
+civilized world painfully strained toward her. But from Petersburg to
+Wilmington the country side was wide awake and eager for news. Anxious
+knots were at every station and water tank, and not overclean hands
+were thrust into the windows, with the cry: "Airy paper?" Sometimes
+yellow faces, framed with long, lank hair, peered in at the doors;
+while occasional voices indescribably twanged: "You'uns got any news
+from thar 'nauggeration?"
+
+Staple's ready, while not very accurate, replies were hungrily
+swallowed; proffered papers of any date were clutched and borne as
+prizes to the learned man of each group, to be spelled out to the
+delectation of open-mouthed listeners. For the whole country had turned
+out, with its hands in its breeches pockets, and so far it seemed
+content to gape and lounge about the stations. The men, to all
+appearance, were ready and eager; but at that time no idea of such a
+thing as preparation had entered their minds.
+
+It is difficult, at best, to overcome the _vis inertiae_ of the
+lower-class dweller along the South Atlantic seaboard; but when he is
+first knocked in the head with so knotty a club as secession, and then
+is told to be up and doing, he probably does--nothing. Their leaders
+had not been among them yet, and the "Goobers" were entirely at sea.
+They knew that something had gone wrong, that something was expected of
+them; but how, where or what, their conception was of the vaguest. The
+average intelligence of the masses thereabout is not high; the change
+noticeable before crossing the Virginia line becoming more and more
+marked as one travels straight south. Whether the monotonous stretches
+of pine barren depress mentally, or frequent recurring "ager"
+prostrates physically, who shall say? But to the casual glance along
+that railroad line, was not presented an unvarying picture of bright,
+or intellectual, faces.
+
+In Wilmington--not then the busy mart and "port of the Confederacy,"
+she later grew to be--almost equal apathy prevailed. There was more
+general sense of a crisis upon them; but the escape valve for extra
+steam, generated therefrom, seemed to be in talk only. There were
+loud-mouthed groups about the hotel, sundry irate and some drunken
+politicians at the ferry. But signs of real action were nowhere seen;
+and modes of organization seemed to have interested no man one met. The
+"Old North State" had stood ready to dissolve her connection with the
+Union for some five weeks; but to the looker-on, she seemed no more
+ready for the struggle to follow her "ordinance of secession," than if
+that step had not been considered.
+
+But it must be remembered that this was the very beginning, when a
+whole people were staggered by reaction of their own blow; and all
+seemed to stand irresolute on the threshold of a vast change. And when
+the tug really came, the state responded so bravely and so readily that
+none of her sisters might doubt the mettle she was made of. Her record
+is written from Bethel to Appomattox, in letters so bright that time
+can not dim, or conquest tarnish, them.
+
+Through South Carolina and Georgia, men seemed more awake to the
+greatness of the change and to the imminence of its results. Inland
+Georgia, especially, showed keener and shrewder. Questions were more to
+the point; and many a quick retort was popped through the car windows
+at Staple's wonderful inventions. A strongly asseverated wish to do
+something, and that at the earliest moment, was generally clinched by a
+bouncing oath; but where, or how, that something was to be done was
+never even hinted. Briefly, Georgia seemed more anxious for preparation
+than her neighbors; withal she was equally far from preparation. It
+were manifestly unfair to judge the status of a whole people by
+glimpses from a railway carriage. But from that point of view, the
+earliest hours of revolution--those hours which, properly utilized, are
+most fruitful of result--were woefully and weakly wasted by "the
+leaders."
+
+The people had risen _en masse_. The flame had spread among them like
+lava to their lowest depths. Told that their section needed them, they
+had responded like the Douglas, "Ready, aye, ready!" Beyond this they
+were told nothing; and during those most precious weeks they waited,
+while demagoguery flourished and action slept. The entire cotton
+growing region was in active fermentation; but, until the surface
+bubbles ceased, no practical deposit could be looked for.
+
+"Devilish strong hands and pretty broad backs these, but I've yet to
+see the first head among them! I suppose we'll find _them_ at
+Montgomery!"
+
+After emitting which Orphic utterance at West Point, Styles Staple
+emptied the partnership's pocket-flask, and then slept peacefully until
+we reached the "Cradle of the Confederacy."
+
+Montgomery, like Rome, sits on seven hills. The city is picturesque in
+perch upon bold, high bluffs, which, on the city side, cut sheer down
+to the Alabama river; here, seemingly scarce more than a biscuit-toss
+across. From the opposite bank spread great flat stretches of marsh and
+meadow land, while on the other side, behind the town, the formation
+swells and undulates with gentle rise. As in most southern inland
+towns, its one great artery, Main street, runs from the river bluffs to
+the Capitol, perched on a high hill a full mile away. This street, wide
+and sandy, was in the cradle days badly paved, but rather closely built
+up. Nor was the Capitol a peculiarly stately pile, either in size or
+architectural effect. Still it dominated the lesser structures, as it
+stared down the street with quite a Roman rigor. The staff upon its
+dome bore the flag of the new nation, run up there shortly after the
+Congress met by the hands of a noted daughter of Virginia. Miss Letitia
+Tyler was not only a representative of proud Old Dominion blood, but
+was also granddaughter of the ex-President of the United States, whose
+eldest son, Robert, lived in the new Capital. All Montgomery had
+flocked to Capitol Hill in holiday attire; bells rang and cannon
+boomed, and the throng--including all members of the government--stood
+bareheaded as the fair Virginian threw that flag to the breeze. Then a
+poet-priest--who later added the sword to the quill--spoke a solemn
+benediction on the people, their flag and their cause; and a shout went
+up from every throat that told they meant to honor and strive for it;
+if need be, to die for it. What was the meaning of the pact, then and
+there made, had been told by a hundred battle-fields, from Texas to
+Gettysburg, from Santa Rosa to Belmont, ere the star of the South set
+forever, and her remnant of warriors sadly draped that "conquered
+banner."
+
+On the whole, the effect of Montgomery upon the newly arrived was
+rather pleasing, with a something rather provincial, quite in keeping
+with its location inland. Streets, various in length, uncertain in
+direction and impractical as to pavement, ran into Main street at many
+points; and most of them were closely built with pretty houses, all of
+them surrounded by gardens and many by handsome grounds. Equidistant
+from the end of Main street and from each other, stood, in these cradle
+days, the two hotels of which the Capital could boast. Montgomery Hall,
+of bitter memory--like the much-sung "Raven of Zurich," for
+uncleanliness of nest and length of bill--had been the resort of
+country merchants, horse and cattle-men; but now the Solon of the hour
+dwelt therein, with the possible hero of many a field. The Exchange--of
+rather more pretensions and vastly more comfort--was at that time in
+the hands of a northern firm, who "could keep a hotel." The latter was
+political headquarters--the President, the Cabinet and a swarm of the
+possible great residing there.
+
+Montgomery was Washington over again; only on a smaller scale, and with
+the avidity and agility in pursuit of the spoils somewhat enhanced by
+the freshness of scent.
+
+"The President is at this house?" I queried of the ex-member of
+Congress next me at dinner. "But he does not appear, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, yes; he's waiting here till his house is made ready. But he
+doesn't have a private table; takes his meals like an everyday mortal,
+at the ladies' ordinary."
+
+He had scarcely spoken when Mr. Davis entered by a side door and took
+his seat, with only an occasional stare of earnest, but not
+disrespectful, curiosity from the more recent arrivals.
+
+Even in the few weeks since I had seen him, there was a great change.
+He looked worn and thinner; and the set expression of the somewhat
+stern features gave a grim hardness not natural to their lines. With
+scarcely a glance around, he returned the general salutations, sat down
+absently and was soon absorbed in conversation with General Cooper, who
+had recently resigned the adjutant-generalship of the United States
+army and accepted a similar post and a brigadier's commission from Mr.
+Davis.
+
+An after-dinner interview with the President of the Confederacy, to
+present the "very important" documents from one of the martyrs pining
+for hanging at Washington, proved them only a prolix report of the
+inauguration. Mr. Davis soon threw them aside to hear the verbal
+account from us.
+
+At this time the southern chief was fifty-two years old--tall, erect
+and spare by natural habit, but worn thin to almost emaciation by
+mental and physical toil. Almost constant sickness and unremitting
+excitement of the last few months had left their imprint on face as
+well as figure. The features had sharpened and the lines had deepened
+and hardened; the thin lips had a firmer compression and the lower
+jaw--always firm and prominent--was closer pressed to its fellow. Mr.
+Davis had lost the sight of one eye many months previous, though that
+member scarcely showed its imperfection; but in the other burned a
+deep, steady glow, showing the presence with him of thought that never
+slept. And in conversation he had the habit of listening with eyes
+shaded by the lids, then suddenly shooting forth at the speaker a gleam
+from the stone-gray pupil which seemed to penetrate his innermost mind.
+
+Little ceremony, or form, hedged the incubating government; and perfect
+simplicity marked every detail about Mr. Davis. His office, for the
+moment, was one of the parlors of the hotel. Members of the Cabinet and
+high officials came in and out without ceremony, to ask questions and
+receive very brief replies; or for whispered consultation with the
+President's private secretary, whose desk was in the same room. Casual
+visitors were simply announced by an usher, and were received whenever
+business did not prevent. Mr. Davis' manner was unvarying in its quiet
+and courtesy, drawing out all that one had to tell, and indicating by
+brief answer, or criticism, that he had extracted the pith from it. At
+that moment he was the very idol of the people; the grand embodiment to
+them of their grand cause; and they gave him their hands unquestioning,
+to applaud any move soever he might make. And equally unthinking as
+this popular manifestation of early hero-worship, was the clamor that
+later floated into Richmond on every wind, blaming the government--and
+especially its head--for every untoward detail of the facile descent to
+destruction.
+
+A better acquaintance with the Confederate Capital impressed one still
+more with its likeness to Washington toward the end of the session; but
+many features of that likeness were salient ones, which had marred and
+debased the older city. The government just organizing, endless places
+of profit, of trust, or of honor, were to be filled; and for each and
+every one of them was a rush of jostling and almost rabid claimants.
+The skeleton of the regular army had just been articulated by Congress,
+but the bare bones would soon have swelled to more than Falstaffian
+proportions, had one in every twenty of the ardent aspirants been
+applied as matter and muscle. The first "gazette" was watched for with
+straining eyes, and naturally would follow aching hearts; for
+disappointment here first sowed the dragon's teeth that were to spring
+into armed opponents of the unappreciative power.
+
+The whole country was new. Everything was to be done--to be made; and
+who was so capable for both, in their own conceit, as that swarm of
+worn-out lobbymen and contractors who, having thoroughly exploited "the
+old concern," now gathered to gorge upon the new. And by the hundred
+flocked hither those unclean birds, blinking bleared eyes at any chance
+bit, whetting foul bills to peck at carrion from the departmental
+sewer. Busy and active at all hours, the lobby of the Exchange, when
+the crowd and the noise rose to the flood at night, smacked no little
+of pandemonium. Every knot of men had its grievance; every flag in the
+pavement was a rostrum. Slowness of organization, the weakness of
+Congress, secession of the border states, personnel of the Cabinet and
+especially the latest army appointments--these and kindred subjects
+were canvassed with heat equaled only by ignorance. Men from every
+section of the South defended their own people in highest of keys and
+no little temper; startling measures for public safety were offered and
+state secrets openly discussed in this curbstone congress; while a rank
+growth of newspaper correspondents, with "the very latest," swelled the
+hum into a veritable Babel. And the most incomprehensible of all was
+the diametric opposition of men from the same neighborhood, in their
+views of the same subject. Often it would be a vital one, of doctrine,
+or of policy; and yet these neighbors would antagonize more bitterly
+than would men from opposite parts of the confederation.
+
+Two ideas, however, seemed to pervade the entire South at this time
+which, though arrived at by most differing courses of reasoning, were
+discussed with complacent unanimity. One was that keystone dogma of
+secession, "Cotton is king;" the second, the belief that the war,
+should there be any, could not last over three months. The causes that
+led to the first belief were too numerous, if not too generally
+understood also, to be discussed here afresh; and upon them, men of all
+sections and of all creeds based firmest faith that, so soon as Europe
+understood that the separation was permanent and a regular government
+had been organized, the power of cotton alone would dictate immediate
+recognition. The man who ventured dissent from this idea, back it by
+what reason he might, was voted no better than an idiot; if, indeed,
+his rank disloyalty was not broadly hinted at.
+
+But the second proposition was harder still to comprehend. There had
+already been a tacit declaration of war, and overt acts were of
+frequent commission. As the states seceded, they seized the arsenals,
+with arms and munitions; the shipping, mints and all United States
+property, only permitting the officers to go on their parole.
+
+The North was already straining preparation to resent these insults
+offered to the power and to the flag of the Union. The people were of
+one race, embittered by long-existent rivalries and jealousies as
+strangers can never be embittered; and the balance of numbers, of
+capital and of machinery were on the other side. These causes, as they
+were without fresh incentives that needs must follow war, seemed
+sufficient to convince reasoning men that if the storm burst, it would
+be as enduring as it was terrific. I could realize that to men
+saturated with pride of section, who knew little of facts and feelings
+beyond their boundaries, the idea of peaceful separation, or of a short
+war, could be possible. But that the citizens of the world now
+congregated at Montgomery, who had sucked in her wisdom as mother's
+milk, should talk thus, puzzled those who paused to query if they
+really meant what they said.
+
+Up to this time Montgomery had been scarcely more than a great inland
+village; dividing her local importance between being the capital of
+Alabama, the terminus of her principal railroad, and the practical head
+of navigation for her greatest river. The society had been composed of
+some planters, cotton men, a few capitalists, some noted professionals
+and a large class connected with railroad and steamboat interests.
+There had always been considerable culture, more hospitality and still
+more ambition, social and civic; but there was still much lacking of
+what the world expects of a city. Now, however, a future loomed up
+before the town, which had never before crossed the dreams of its
+oldest inhabitant. Her choice as the "cradle of the Confederacy," the
+sudden access of population therefrom, the probable erection of
+furnaces, factories and storehouses, with consequent disbursement of
+millions--all these gave the humdrum town a new value and importance,
+even to its humblest citizen. Already small merchants saw their ledgers
+grow in size, to the tune of added cash to fall jingling into enlarged
+tills. In fact, the choice of the Capital had turned a society,
+provincially content to run in accustomed grooves, quite topsy-turvy;
+and, perhaps for want of some other escape-valve under the new
+pressure, the townspeople grumbled consumedly.
+
+Tiring of experimental camping-out in a hotel, a few gentlemen hired a
+house and established a "mess." They were all notables--General Cooper,
+General Meyers, Dr. DeLeon, Colonel Deas and others, the three first
+being adjutant-general, quartermaster-general and surgeon-general of
+the new army. A chief of department, or two and this writer, completed
+the occupants of "the Ranche," as it was early christened by "the
+colonel;" and its piazza soon became the favorite lounging-place in the
+evening of the better and brighter elements of the floating population.
+There was sure to be found the newest arrival, if he were worth
+knowing; the latest papers and news "from across;" and, as the blue
+smoke of the Havanas floated lazily out on the soft summer night, many
+a jovial laugh followed it and a not infrequent prediction of scenes to
+come almost prophetic. And of the lips that made these most are now
+silent forever--stilled in the reddest glow of battle, with the war-cry
+hot upon them.
+
+So far the news that came in from all quarters continued cheering. A
+vague sense of doubt and suspense would creep in when one stopped to
+think, but nothing terrible, or shocking, had yet happened anywhere.
+Though the nation was going down to battle, its banners were flaunting
+gaily and its bands were playing anything but dirges.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+CONGRESS AND CABINET.
+
+
+The proposition that, shown who writes the ballads of a country, one
+may tell who makes its laws, is far from reversible in many instances;
+and assuredly the lawmakers of the Confederacy looked little like
+poets.
+
+When the councils of a country are assembled for work, it is but natural
+to look for a body of grave and reverend--if not most potent--seigniors.
+And especially, when a new government is forming from selected
+fragments of the old, might one expect a pure and simple structure,
+free from those faults and weaknesses which sowed the seeds of
+disintegration in the elder fabric.
+
+It was too much the fashion to believe that the Confederacy--having
+sprung full-grown from foam of the angry sea of politics--was
+full-armed as well. A revolution, unprecedented in the world's history,
+had already been achieved. A strongly cemented and firmly seated
+government had been disrupted; and a new one, built from the dissevered
+fragments, had been erected almost under the shadow of its Capitol. And
+no drop of blood had been spilled! Six millions of people had uprisen
+and, by a simple declaration of will, had in a few short weeks undone
+the work of near a century. Without arms in their hands; without a keel
+in their waters; without a dollar in their treasury, they arrayed
+themselves against the mother government with the serious purpose of
+not only asserting, but maintaining, their independence of it.
+
+So far, all had been accomplished without violence. But, whatever the
+simpler masses might expect, the initiated politician could scarce have
+believed that the older government would meekly submit to "Let the
+erring sisters go in peace." Hence, one might justly have looked to see
+the executive council of the new nation--to whom had been intrusted its
+safety and its hopes--with every thought bent, every nerve strained to
+the one vital point--preparation! One could only have expected measures
+simple as energetic; laws clear, concise and comprehensive; care only
+for the arming, organizing and maintenance of the people.
+
+Blessed are they who expect nothing! One glance at the "Congress of the
+Confederate States of America," as it sat in the Capitol at Montgomery,
+told the whole story of its organization and of its future usefulness.
+
+The states went out of the union, separately and at different periods,
+by the action of conventions. These were naturally composed of men who
+had long been prominently before the people, urging the measures of
+secession. As a matter of course, the old political workers of each
+section, by fair means and foul, were enabled to secure election to
+these conventions; and, once there, they so fevered and worked upon the
+public mind, amid rapidly succeeding events, that its after-thought
+could neither be reasonable nor deliberate. The act of secession once
+consummated, the state connected itself with the Confederacy and
+representatives had to be sent to Montgomery. Small wonder that the men
+most prominent in the secession conventions should secure their own
+election, as little regard to fitness as ability being had by the
+excited electors.
+
+The House of Representatives at Montgomery looked like the Washington
+Congress, viewed through a reversed opera-glass. The same want of
+dignity and serious work; the same position of ease, with feet on desk
+and hat on head; the same buzzing talk on indifferent subjects; often
+the very same men in the lobbies--taking dry smokes from unlit cigars;
+all these elements were there in duplicate, if somewhat smaller and
+more concentrated. No point in Montgomery was remote enough--no
+assemblage dignified enough--to escape the swoop of the lobby vulture.
+His beak was as sharp and his unclean talons as strong as those of the
+traditional bird, which had blinked and battened so long on the eaves
+of the Washington edifice. When "the old concern" had been dismembered,
+limbs had been dragged whole to aid in the construction of the new
+giant; and scenting these from afar, he hastened hither fierce for his
+fresh banquet.
+
+Glancing down from the gallery of the House, many were the familiar
+faces peering over the desks; and, even where one did not know the
+individual, it was easy to recognize the politician by trade among the
+rosy and uncomfortable novices. It was constant food for wonderment to
+thoughtful men, that the South had, in most cases, chosen party hacks
+to legislate for and to lead her in this great crisis, rather than
+transfused younger blood and steadier nerves into her councils; rather
+than grafted new minds upon the as yet healthy body. The revolution was
+popularly accepted as the result of corruptions and aggressions which
+these very men had been utterly helpless to correct, or to prevent;
+even had they not been able actors in them. Yet, worn-out
+politicians--who had years before been "promoted from servants to
+sovereigns and had taken back seats"--floated high upon the present
+surge. Men hot from Washington, reeking with the wiles of the old House
+and with their unblushing buncombe fresh upon them, took the lead in
+every movement; and the rank old Washington leaven threatened to
+permeate every pore of the new government.
+
+It is small wonder that the measures of such a congress, when not
+vacillating, were weak. If the time demanded anything, that demand was
+the promptest organization of an army, with an immediate basis of
+foreign credit, to arm, equip and clothe it. Next to this was the
+urgent need for a simple and readily managed machinery in the different
+departments of the government.
+
+Neither of these desiderata could be secured by their few earnest and
+capable advocates, who thrust them forward over and over again, only to
+be pushed aside by the sensation element with which the popular will of
+the new nation--or the want of it--had diluted her councils. There were
+windy dissertations on the color of the flag, or on the establishment
+of a patent office; and members made long speeches, bearing on no
+special point, but that most special one of their own re-election.
+There were bitter denunciations of "the old wreck;" violent diatribes
+on the "gridiron" flag; with many an eloquent and manly declaration of
+the feelings and the attitude of the South. But these were not the
+bitter need. Declarations sufficient had already been made; and the
+masses--having made them, and being ready and willing to maintain
+them--stood with their hands in their pockets, open-mouthed, eager, but
+inactive. They were waiting for some organization, for some
+systematized preparation for the struggle even they felt to be surely
+coming. Not one in three of the congressmen dared look the real issue
+directly in the face; and these were powerless to accomplish anything
+practical. But their constant pressure finally forced from the
+reluctant legislature a few first steps toward reduction of the chaos.
+
+The Government was to consist, after the President, of a vice-President
+and a secretary for each of the departments of State, War, Navy,
+Treasury, Post-Office and Justice; the latter being a combination of
+the responsibilities of the Interior Department and the
+Attorney-General's office.
+
+Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, had been elevated to the
+vice-Presidency, as reconciling the oppositions of "original secession"
+and "anti secession." He had long been a prominent politician; was
+thoroughly acquainted with all the points of public life; and was, at
+this time, quite popular with people of all sections, being generally
+regarded as a man of exceptional capacity and great independence.
+
+The portfolio of State was in the hands of another Georgian, Robert
+Toombs. In the present posture of affairs, little could be expected
+from it, as until the nations of Europe should recognize the South, she
+could have no foreign policy. The honorable secretary himself seemed
+fully to realize how little onerous was his position. One of the ten
+thousand applicants for any and every position approached him for a
+place in his department and exhibited his letters of recommendation.
+
+"Perfectly useless, sir!" responded Mr. Toombs with a thunderous oath.
+Let us whisper that the honorable secretary was a profound swearer.
+
+"But, sir," persisted the place hunter, "if you will only look at this
+letter from Mr. ----, I think you can find something for me."
+
+"Can you get in here, sir?" roared the secretary fiercely, taking off
+his hat and pointing into it--with a volley of sonorous oaths--"That's
+the Department of State, sir!"
+
+The Post-Office and Department of Justice were, as yet, about as useful
+as the State Department; but to the War Office, every eye was turned,
+and the popular verdict seemed to be that the choice there was not the
+right man in the right place. Mr. Leroy Pope Walker, to whom its
+administration was intrusted, was scarcely known beyond the borders of
+his own state; but those who did know him prophesied that he would
+early stagger under the heavy responsibility that would necessarily
+fall upon him in event of war. Many averred that he was only a man of
+straw to whom Mr. Davis had offered the portfolio, simply that he might
+exercise his own well-known love for military affairs and be himself
+the _de facto_ Secretary of War.
+
+The selection of Mr. Mallory, of Florida, for the Navy Department, was
+more popular and was, as yet, generally considered a good one. His long
+experience as chairman of the committee on naval affairs, in the United
+States Senate, and his reputation for clearness of reasoning and
+firmness of purpose, made him acceptable to the majority of politicians
+and people. Of Mr. Reagan the people knew little; but their fate was
+not in his hands, and just now they were content to wait for their
+letters.
+
+The Treasury Department was justly supposed to be the key to national
+success. It was at least the twin, in importance, with the War Office.
+Mr. Memminger, of South Carolina, was a self-made man, who had managed
+the finances of his state and had made reputation for some financiering
+ability and much common sense. He had, moreover, the advantage of being
+a new man; and the critics were willing to give him the benefit of
+common law, until he should prove himself guilty. Still the finance of
+the country was so vital, and came home so nearly to every man in it,
+that perhaps a deeper anxiety was felt about its management than that
+of any other branch.
+
+The Attorney-General, or chief of the Department of Justice, had a
+reputation as wide as the continent--and as far as mental ability and
+legal knowledge went, there could be no question among the growlers as
+to his perfect qualifications for the position. Mr. Judah P. Benjamin
+was not only the successful politician, who had risen from obscurity to
+become the leader of his party in the Senate, and its exponent of the
+constitutional questions involved in its action; but he was, also, the
+first lawyer at the bar of the Supreme Court and was known as a ripe
+and cultivated scholar. So the people who shook their heads at him--and
+they were neither few nor far between--did it on other grounds than
+that of incapacity.
+
+This was the popular view of that day at the new Capital. The country
+at large had but little means of knowing the real stuff of which the
+Cabinet was made. It is true, four of the six were old and thoroughly
+broken party horses, who had for years cantered around the Washington
+arena, till the scent of its sawdust was dear to their nostrils. But
+the people knew little of them individually and took their tone from
+the politicians of the past. So--as it is a known fact that politicians
+are never satisfied--the Cabinet and Congress, as tried in the hotel
+alembic, were not found pure gold.
+
+So the country grumbled. The newspapers snarled, criticised and
+asserted, with some show of truth, that things were at a dead
+standstill, and that nothing practical had been accomplished.
+
+Such was the aspect of affairs at Montgomery, when on the 10th of
+April, Governor Pickens, of South Carolina, telegraphed that the
+Government at Washington had notified him of its intention to supply
+Fort Sumter--"Peaceably if we can; forcibly if we must."
+
+Bulletins were posted before the Exchange, the newspaper office and the
+"Government House;" and for two days there was intense suspense as to
+what course the South would pursue. Then the news flashed over the
+wires that, on the morning of the 12th of April, Beauregard had opened
+the ball in earnest, by commencing the bombardment of Fort Sumter. This
+caused the excitement to go up to fever heat; and the echo of that
+first gun made every heart in the breadth of the land bound with
+quickened throb. Business was suspended, all the stores in the town
+were closed, while crowds at the hotels and in the streets became
+larger and more anxious as the day wore on. Various and strange were
+the speculations as to the issue of the fight and its consequences; but
+the conviction came, like a thunder clap upon the most skeptical, that
+there was to be war after all!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+"THE AWAKENING OF THE LION."
+
+
+When tidings came of the fall of Fort Sumter, there was wild rejoicing
+throughout the South and it culminated at her Capital. All the great,
+and many of the little men of the Government were serenaded by bands of
+the most patriotic musical persuasion. Bonfires blazed in every street
+and, by their red glare, crowds met and exchanged congratulations, amid
+the wildest enthusiasm; while the beverage dear to the cis-Atlantic
+heart was poured out in libations wonderful to see!
+
+One-half of the country thought that this victory of a few untrained
+gunners would prevent further progress of the war; that the Federal
+Government, seeing how determined was the stand the South had
+taken--how ready she was to defend her principles--would recede and
+grant the concessions demanded. The other half felt that, however fair
+an augury for the future the great and bloodless victory might be--and
+it will be recollected that the only loss was the death of a few United
+States soldiers, in the salute Beauregard permitted them to give their
+flag--the real tug of the struggle was not yet commenced; that the
+whole power of a government, never yet overstrained, or even fully
+tested, would be hurled on the new confederation, to crush ere it could
+concentrate its strength.
+
+The Confederate Government was on the side of this opinion; and now,
+for the first time, preparations for war began in earnest. Though the
+people of Montgomery still murmured, as they had done from the
+beginning, at the influx of corrupting social influences from Sodom on
+the Potomac, and still held the hordes of unintroduced strangers aloof
+from their firesides, they continued most strenuous exertions and made
+most selfless sacrifices to serve the beloved cause. Storehouses were
+freely offered for the public use; and merchants moved from their
+places of business, on shortest notice, to turn them over to the
+Government.
+
+A great, red brick pile, originally built for warehouses and
+counting-rooms, had early been converted into public offices and
+popularly named the "Government House." Here the departments were all
+crowded together; and now, under the pressure of close necessity, the
+War office was organized into bureaux, at the heads of which were
+placed the most competent officers of the old service at the disposal
+of the Executive. Bureaux of Adjutant-General, Ordnance, Engineers and
+Medicine were soon put in as perfect a state as the condition of the
+South allowed; and their respective chiefs were tireless in endeavor to
+collect the very best assistants and material, in their various
+branches, from every quarter.
+
+Commissioners were sent to all the states that had not already joined
+the Confederacy, to urge them to speedy action; and the dispatches they
+sent back were so full of cheer, that day after day a salute of cannon
+from the street in front of the Government House announced to the
+roused Montgomerans that another ally had enlisted under the flag; or,
+that a fresh levy of troops, from some unexpected quarter, had been
+voted to the cause.
+
+Officers, carefully selected from those who left the United States
+Army, or who had received military education elsewhere, were promptly
+sent to all points in the South, to urge and hasten the organization of
+troops; to forward those already raised to points where they might be
+most needed; and to establish recruiting stations and camps of
+instruction. The captured arsenals were put in working order, new ones
+were started, depots for clothes, ordnance and medicines were prepared;
+and from one boundary of the Confederacy to the other, the hum of
+preparation told that the leaders of the nation had at last awakened to
+its real demands.
+
+The mass of the people--who, from the first, had been willing and
+anxious, but doubtful what to do--now sprang to their places; moneyed
+men made large and generous donations of cash; the banks offered loans
+of any amount, on most liberal terms; planters from every section made
+proffers of provisions and stock, in any quantities needed; and the
+managers of all the railroads in the South held a convention at
+Montgomery and proffered the use of their roads to the Government;
+volunteering to charge only half-rates, and to receive payment in the
+bonds of the Confederate States.
+
+Especially did the women go heart and soul into the work; urging the
+laggards, encouraging the zealous, and laboring with sacrificial zeal
+upon rough uniforms for the most unprepared of the new troops.
+
+The best blood of the South went cheerfully into the ranks, as the post
+of honor; and the new regiments endeavored to be perfectly impartial in
+selecting the best men for their officers, irrespective of any other
+claim. That they failed signally in their object was the fault, not of
+their intention, but of human nature in many cases--of circumstance in
+all.
+
+At this time the plan of filling up the regular army was abandoned.
+Officers coming from the United States service were, by law, entitled
+to at least as high rank in it as they had there held; but volunteers
+were asked for and accepted by companies, or regiments, with the
+privilege of choosing their own leaders; and these regulars were only
+given commands where vacancies, or the exigencies of the service,
+seemed to demand it imperatively.
+
+Every hour of the day could be heard the tap of the drum, as the new
+troops from depot, or steamer, marched through the town to their camps
+in the suburbs; or as the better drilled volunteer companies passed
+through to Pensacola, where Brigadier-General Braxton Bragg already had
+a considerable force. And toward that point every eye was strained as
+the next great theater of action.
+
+All day long the churches were open, and crowds of ladies, from town
+and country, assembled in them and sewed on the tough, ungainly pants
+and jackets; while their negro maids, collected on the porches, or
+under the trees, worked as steadily as their mistresses, many a ringing
+guffaw and not unmusical song rising above them.
+
+Great numbers of the interested and the curious visited the camps,
+carrying substantial tokens of sympathy for the cause and its defenders
+in the shape of hams, loaves and sometimes bottles. Nor was such
+testimony often irrelevant; for as yet the quartermaster and
+commissary--those much-erring and more-cursed adjuncts to all
+armies--were not fully aware of what they were to do, or how to do it,
+even with the means therefor provided. But the South was at last awake!
+And again the popular voice averred that it was not Congress, or
+Cabinet; that the President alone was the motive power; that his strong
+hand had grasped the chaos and reduced it to something like order.
+Rapidly one needful and pointed law after another emanated from
+Congress; and what had been a confused mass of weak resolves assumed
+shape as clear and legible statutes. It was generally said that Mr.
+Davis had reduced Congress to a pliable texture that his iron fingers
+could twist at will into any form they pleased. Newspaper
+correspondents wrote strange stories of the length to which that
+dignified body allowed him to carry his prerogative. They declared that
+frequently, the framing of a bill not suiting him, it was simply
+returned by his private secretary, with verbal instructions as to
+emendations and corrections, which were obediently carried out.
+
+Some even went to the length of asserting that, before any bill of
+importance was framed, a rough draft was sent down from the President's
+office and simply put into form and voted a law by the ductile
+legislators.
+
+However much of this one may allow for exaggeration of "our
+correspondent," it is certain that Mr. Davis was the heart and brains
+of the government; and his popularity with the people was, at this
+time, unbounded. They were perfectly content to think that the
+government was in the hollow of his hand; and pronounced any of his
+measures good before they were tried. His energy, too, was untiring;
+and it was wonderful to look on the frail body and believe that it
+endured the terrible physical and mental strain he imposed upon it.
+
+At this time the President and his family, having left their temporary
+quarters at the hotel, were living at a plain mansion provided for
+them, but a few steps from the Government House. In the latter building
+were the executive office and the Cabinet room, connected by an always
+open door; and in one or the other of these Mr. Davis spent some
+fifteen hours out of every twenty-four. Here he received the thousands
+of visitors whom curiosity, or business, brought; consulted with his
+secretaries, revised bills, or framed new projects for strengthening
+the defenses of the open and wide frontier. It was said that he managed
+the War Department, in all its various details, in addition to other
+manifold labors; finding time not only to give it a general
+supervision, but to go into all the minutiae of the working of its
+bureaux, the choice of all its officers, or agents, and the very
+disbursement of its appropriations.
+
+His habits were as simple as laborious. He rose early, worked at home
+until breakfast, then to a long and wearing day at the Government
+House. Often, long after midnight, the red glow from his office lamp,
+shining over the mock-orange hedge in front of his dwelling, told of
+unremitting strain. Thus early in the drama, Mr. Benjamin had become
+one of its leading actors; having more real weight and influence with
+Mr. Davis than any, or all, of his other advisers. The President did
+not believe there was "safety in a multitude of counsellors;" and he
+certainly chose the subtlest, if not the safest, head of the half-dozen
+to aid him. With Mr. Mallory, too, he seemed on very friendly and
+confidential terms. These two he met as friends and advisers; but
+beside them, the Cabinet--as such--had scarcely a practical existence.
+Mr. Davis very naturally considered that the War Department had become
+the government, and he managed it accordingly. The secretaries were, of
+course, useful to arrange matters formally in their respective
+branches; but they had scarcely higher duties left them than those of
+their clerks; while Congress remained a formal body to pass bills and
+ratify acts, the inspiration for which it derived from the clearest and
+coolest brain in the South.
+
+The crisis had called in plain terms that it was time for the leading
+spirit of the revolution to take its management; and he had risen to
+the occasion and faced the responsibilities, before which the chosen of
+the new nation had hitherto cowered.
+
+And naturally, under the iron hand, things began to work more smoothly
+than they had under the King-Log reign of a few weeks previous; and the
+country felt the change from the Potomac to the Gulf. True, politicians
+still grumbled, but less loudly; for even they found something to do,
+where everybody began to be busy. The great crowd that at first
+collected had thinned greatly, from assignments to duty in divers
+quarters; and that portion of it left in Montgomery began to settle
+into a regular routine.
+
+The ladies of the executive mansion held occasional receptions, after
+the Washington custom, at which were collected the most brilliant, the
+most gallant and most honored of the South. But the citizens still held
+aloof from general connection with the alien crowd. They could not get
+rid of their idea that Sodom had come to be imposed on them; and to
+their prejudiced nostrils there was an odor of sulphur in everything
+that savored of Washington society. And yet, while they grumbled--these
+older people of Montgomery--they wrought, heart and soul for the cause;
+yielded their warerooms for government use, contributed freely in money
+and stores, let their wives and daughters work on the soldiers'
+clothing like seamstresses, and put their first-born into the ranks,
+musket on shoulder.
+
+Early on the morning of the 18th of April, a salute of seven guns rang
+out from the street before the public building. The telegraph had
+brought the most welcome news that, on the evening before, Virginia had
+passed the ordinance of secession.
+
+Wild was the rejoicing at the southern Capital that day!
+
+The Old Dominion had long and sedately debated the question; had
+carefully considered the principles involved and canvassed the pros and
+cons, heedless alike of jeers from without and hot-headed counsels
+within her borders.
+
+She had trembled long in the balance so tenderly adjusted, that the
+straining eyes of the South could form no notion how it would lean; but
+now she turned deliberately and poured the vast wealth of her
+influence, of her mineral stores and her stalwart and chivalric sons
+into the lap of the Confederacy.
+
+The victory of the week before paled before this; and men looked at
+each other with a hope in their eyes that spoke more than the braying
+of a thousand bands.
+
+And the triumph was a double one; for great as was the accession to the
+South in boundary, in men and means, greater far was the blow to the
+Union, when its eldest and most honored daughter divorced herself from
+the parent hearth and told the world, that looked on with deep
+suspense, that the cause of her sisters must in future be her own!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A SOUTHERN RIVER BOAT RACE.
+
+
+"Hurry, my boy! Pack up your traps and get ready for the boat," cried
+Styles Staple, bursting into my room in his usual sudden fashion the
+day we got the news from Virginia. "All's fixed. The colonel, you and I
+are to have a trip of a week, stop at Mobile and then run down t'
+Orleans!"
+
+So by sundown we were quietly smoking our cigars on the topmost deck of
+the "Southern Republic."
+
+Nowhere in the world can be found just such boats as those that
+navigate our south-western rivers. Great three or four-storied
+constructions, built upon mere flats of the lightest possible draught,
+with length and breadth of beam sufficient to allow storage room for an
+immense number of cotton bales and barrels upon the lowest deck; with
+their furnaces, boilers and machinery all above the water line, they
+look like up-country hotels that, having got out of their element,
+contemplate a down-trip for the benefit of their health--or _cuisine_.
+
+The "Southern Republic" was a new boat, built after the most approved
+plan, on a scale of size and magnificence unequaled on the river.
+Sitting flat and square upon the water, her four decks rising one above
+the other--with the thousand doors and windows of her state-rooms
+seeming to peer like eyes over the balconies around them--she seemed
+more like some fabled marine monster than a vessel meant for speed and
+comfort. Her length was immense, and her draught necessarily very
+light--not four feet when full loaded; for the Alabama is subject to
+many vagaries and what was a clear channel yesterday may be only a
+two-foot shoal to-day. Of course, with solidity and strength sacrificed
+to this extreme lightness, when the powerful engines are put to any
+strain, the high, thin fabric thrills from stem to stern with their
+every puff, like a huge card-house.
+
+The speed of a first-class high-pressure boat is very great in the
+longer "reaches;" but, the Alabama is a most tortuous stream. Often you
+stand by the pilot-house and see, right under the quarter, a gleaming
+streak of water across a neck of land over which you might toss a
+stone; and yet you may steam on miles around the point that juts ahead,
+before you get into it.
+
+The "Southern Republic," from her immense size and unusually handsome
+equipment, was a novelty even to the river people; and each afternoon
+of her starting, crowds came aboard to bid farewell to friends and roam
+over the vessel, or collected on the bluffs above to see her swing out
+to the shrill notes of her "calliope," the best and least discordant on
+the river. A few evenings before we left, a large party had collected
+in honor of General Earl Van Dorn. He had recently resigned; and the
+commission as colonel of the only regiment of regular cavalry in the
+Confederacy was tendered him. Now, on the eve of departure for his
+well-known expedition to Texas--then considered a momentous and
+desperate one--numbers of fair women thronged the bluffs to catch a
+glimpse of the hero of the hour, while friends gathered round to grasp
+the hand, than which no firmer ever drew blade!
+
+Few men had started in the war with brighter auspices and more ardent
+well-wishings--none could have had a sadder ending! I remember well the
+last sight I ever had of his neat but powerfully-knit figure, as he
+stood with one hand resting on the rail of the upper deck and the other
+raising his broad sombrero over the clear, sharp features, with the
+peaked moustache and beard of the _cuirassier_. A brilliant and
+handsome staff surrounded him; from the bluffs, the ladies waved their
+handkerchiefs and the men their hats; the wild notes of the calliope
+echoed back the "Marseillaise;" but in memory's photograph of the
+scene, his figure alone--the proud swell of the thin nostril and the
+deep, smothered flame in the cold gray eye--stands out clear and sharp.
+
+We are aboard the "Southern Republic;" the last bell has sounded, the
+last belated trunk has been trundled over the plank; and we are off,
+the calliope screaming "Dixie" like ten thousand devils, the crowds on
+the bank waving us _bon voyage_!
+
+The main saloon of the boat was a spacious apartment, a hundred feet
+long by thirty in breadth, gorgeously decorated with modern paint and
+brilliantly lighted; the galleries leading to the state-rooms rising
+tier upon tier entirely around it, while above, a skylight of tinted
+glass shed a soft, warm light.
+
+There were offices, card-rooms, bar-rooms aboard all these boats; and
+as the down-trip occupies from forty-eight to one hundred
+hours--according to the stage of the river and the luck in running
+aground, a performance to be expected once in each trip--we become
+quite a mutual amusement community by the time it is over.
+
+This trip the boat was very crowded, and at supper the effect of the
+line of small tables, filled with officers in uniform, ladies
+tastefully dressed and a sprinkling of homespun coats--all reflected in
+the long mirror--was very bright and gay. After meals, there is
+generally a promenade on the upper deck, where people talk, smoke,
+inspect each other and flirt. They then adjourn to state-room, saloon
+or card-room, to lounge or read to kill time; for the Alabama is
+anything but a picturesque stream, with its low, marshy banks only
+varied by occasional "cotton slides" and "negro quarters."
+
+This night was splendidly clear, the moon bright as day, and Staple and
+I with our cigars staid on deck to scrape acquaintance with the pilot
+and the small, seedy Frenchman who officiated at the calliope. He was
+an original in his way--"the Professor"--his head like a bullet,
+garnished with hair of the most wiry blackness, cut close as the
+scissors could hold it, looking like the most uncompromising porcupine.
+Of course, he was a political refugee.
+
+"_Dixie! Aire nationale! pas bonne chose!_" he exclaimed, seating
+himself at his instrument and twirling a huge moustache. "_Voila le
+Marseillaise!_ Zat make hymn national for you!" And he made the whistle
+roar and shriek in a way to have sent the red caps into the air a
+hundred miles away.
+
+"Grand! Splendid!" roared Styles above the steam. "Why, Professor,
+you're a genius. Come and take some brandy."
+
+The professor banged the lid of his instrument, led the way instanter
+down to our state-room; and, once there, did take something; then
+something else and, finally, something more, till he got very
+thick-tongued and enthusiastic.
+
+"Grand aire of ze Liberte!" he cried at last, mounting again to his
+perch by the smoke-stack. "Song compose by me for one grand man--ze Van
+Dorn. I make zees--me, myself--and dedicate to heem!" And he banged at
+the keys till he tortured the steam into the Liberty duet, from
+"_Puritani_."
+
+"How you fine zat, eh? Zat makes ze hymn for ze Souse. Me, I am
+republicain! _Voila!_ I wear ze moustache of _ze revolutionaire_--my
+hairs cut themselves _en mecontent_! Were zere colere more red as red,
+I should be zat!"
+
+The professor was so struck by the brilliancy of this idea, that he
+played the air again, until it rang like a phantom chorus over the
+still plantations. At last, overcome by emotion and brandy, he slid
+from the stool and sat at the foot of the smoke-stack, muttering:
+
+"Zat is ze hymn--_hic_--dedicate to ze general and to ze--_hic_--countree!"
+Then he slept the sleep of the just conscience.
+
+"Thar's the 'Senator,' and she's gainin' on us," said the pilot, as we
+walked forward, pointing to a thin column of smoke rising over the
+trees just abreast of us.
+
+"How far astern?"
+
+"A matter of two mile round that pint."
+
+"Splendid night for a race," muttered Styles. "Will she overtake us,
+Cap'n?"
+
+"Wail, maibee!" replied the old river dog, while the most professional
+grin shot over his hard-wooden features. "Specially ef I ease up this
+'ar ole gal."
+
+"Ha! Now we'll have it. We won't turn in just now," chuckled Styles,
+banging me in the back.
+
+Almost imperceptibly our speed slackens, the thin dark column creeps
+nearer round the trees on the point in our wake; at last the steamer
+bursts into sight, not a pistol shot astern.
+
+There is a sharp click of our pilot's bell, a gasping throb, as if our
+boat took a deep, long breath; and just as the "Senator" makes our
+wheel we dash ahead again, with every stroke of the piston threatening
+to rack our frail fabric into shreds.
+
+The river here is pretty wide and the channel deep and clear. The
+"Senator" follows in gallant style, now gaining our quarter, now a
+boat's length astern--both engines roaring and snorting like angry
+hippopotami; both vessels rocking and straining till they seem to paw
+their way through the churned water.
+
+Talk of horse-racing and _rouge-et-noir_! But there is no excitement
+that can approach boat-racing on a southern river! One by one people
+pop up the ladders and throng the rails. First come the unemployed
+deck-hands, then a stray gentleman or two, and finally ladies and
+children, till the rail is full and every eye is anxiously strained to
+the opposite boat.
+
+She holds her own wondrous well, considering the reputation of ours. At
+each burst, when she seems to gain on us, the crowd hold their breath;
+as she drops off again there is a deep-drawn, gasping sign of relief,
+like wind in the pines. Even the colonel has roused himself from dreams
+of turtle at the St. Charles, and red fish at Pensacola; coming on deck
+in a shooting jacket and glengary cap, that make him look like a jaunty
+_Fosco_. He leans over the stern rail, smoking his cabana in long,
+easy whiffs as we gain a length; sending out short, angry puffs at the
+"Senator" as she creeps up on us.
+
+Foot by foot, we gain steadily until the gap is widened to three or
+four boat-lengths, though the "Senator" piles her fires till the shores
+behind her glow from their reflection; and her decks--now black with
+anxious lookers-on--send up cheer after cheer, as she snorts defiantly
+after us.
+
+Suddenly the bank seems to spring up right under our port bow! We have
+cut it too close! Two sharp, vicious clicks of the bell; our helm goes
+hard down and the engines stop with a sullen jar, as I catch a hissing
+curse through the set teeth of the pilot.
+
+A yell of wild triumph rises from the rival's deck. On she comes in
+gallant style, shutting the gap and passing us like a race-horse,
+before we can swing into the channel and recover headway. It is a
+splendid sight as the noble boat passes us; her black bulk standing out
+in the clear moonlight against the dim, gray banks like a living
+monster; her great chimneys snorting out volumes of massive black smoke
+that trail out level behind her, from the great speed. Her side toward
+us is crowded with men, women and children; hats, handkerchiefs and
+hands are swung madly about to aid the effort of the hundred voices.
+
+Close down to the water's edge--scarce above the line of foam she
+cuts--her lower deck lies black and undefined in the shadow of the
+great mass above it. Suddenly it lights up with a lurid flash, as the
+furnace-doors swing wide open; and in the hot glare the negro
+stokers--their stalwart forms jetty black, naked to the waist and
+streaming with exertion that makes the muscles strain out in great
+cords--show like the distorted imps of some pictured inferno. They,
+too, have imbibed the excitement. With every gesture of anxious haste
+and eyeballs starting from their dusky heads, some plunge the long
+rakes into the red mouths of the furnace, twisting and turning the
+crackling mass with terrific strength; others hurl in huge logs of
+resinous pine, already heated by contact till they burn like pitch.
+Then the great doors bang to; the _Yo Ho!_ of the negroes dies away and
+the whole hull is blacker from the contrast; while the "Senator,"
+puffing denser clouds than ever, swings round the point a hundred yards
+ahead!
+
+There is dead silence on our boat--silence so deep that the rough
+whisper of the pilot to the knot around him is heard the whole length
+of her deck: "Damnation! but I'll overstep her yit, or--bust!"
+
+"Good, old man!" responds Styles--"Let her out and I'll stand the
+wine!"
+
+Then the old colonel walks to the wheel; his face purple, his glengary
+pushed back on his head, his cigar glowing like the "red eye of
+battle," as he puffs angry wheezes of smoke through his nostrils.
+
+"Damned hard! sir--hard! Egad! I'd burn the last ham in the locker to
+overtake her!"--and he hurls the glowing stump after the "Senator," as
+the Spartan youth hurled their shields into the thick of the battle ere
+rushing to reclaim them.
+
+On we speed, till the trees on the bank seem to fly back past us; and
+round the point to see the "Senator," just turning another curve!
+
+On still, faster than ever, with every glass on board jingling in its
+frame; every joint and timber trembling, as though with a congestive
+chill!
+
+Still the black demons below ply their fires with the fattest logs, and
+even a few barrels of rosin are slyly slipped in; the smoke behind us
+stretched straight and flat from the smoke-stack.
+
+Now we enter a straight, narrow reach with the chase just before us.
+Faster--faster we go till the boat fairly rocks and swings from side to
+side, half lifted with every throb of the engine. Closer and closer we
+creep--harder and harder thump the cylinders--until at last we close;
+our bow just lapping her stern! So we run a few yards.
+
+Little by little--so little that we test it by counting her windows--we
+reach her wheel--pass it--lock her bow, and run nose and nose for a
+hundred feet!
+
+The stillness of death is upon both boats; not a sound but the creak
+and shudder as they struggle on. Suddenly the hard voice of our old
+pilot crashes through it like a broadaxe:
+
+"Good-bye, Sen'tor! I'll send yer a tug!"--and he gives his bell a
+merry click.
+
+Our huge boat gives one shuddering throb that racks her from end to
+end--one plunge--and then she settles into a steady rush and forges
+rapidly and evenly ahead. Wider and wider grows the gap; and we wind
+out of sight with the beaten boat five hundred yards behind us.
+
+The cigar I take from my mouth, to make way for the deep, long sigh, is
+chewed to perfect pulp. A wild, pent-up yell of half-savage triumph
+goes up from the crowded deck; such as is heard nowhere besides, save
+where the captured work rewards the bloody and oft-repeated charge.
+Cheer after cheer follows; and, as we approach the thin column of smoke
+curling over the trees between us, Styles bestrides the prostrate form
+of the still sleeping professor and makes the calliope yell and shriek
+that classic ditty, "Old Gray Horse, come out of the Wilderness!" at
+the invisible rival.
+
+I doubt if heartier toast was ever drunk than that the colonel gave the
+group around the wheel-house, when Styles "stood" the wine plighted the
+pilot. The veteran was beaming, the glengary sat jauntily on one side;
+and his voice actually gurgled as he said:
+
+"Egad! I'd miss my dinner for a week for this! Gentlemen, a toast!
+Here's to the old boat! God bless her ---- _soul!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+BOAT LIFE AFLOAT AND AGROUND.
+
+
+The day after the race our trio exhausted all usual resources of boat
+life. We lounged in the saloon and saw the young ladies manage their
+beaux and the old ones their children; dropped into the card-rooms and
+watched the innocent games--some heavy ones of "draw poker" with a
+"bale better;" some light ones of "all fours," with only an occasional
+old sinner deep in chess, or solitaire. For cards, conversation,
+tobacco, yarns and the bar make up boat life; it being rare, indeed,
+that the _ennui_ is attacked from the barricade of a book. Then we
+roamed below and saw the negroes--our demons of the night before, much
+modified by sunlight--tend the fires and load cotton. A splendidly
+developed race are those Africans of the river boats, with shiny, black
+skins, through which the corded and tense muscles seem to be bursting,
+even in repose. Their only dress, as a general thing, is a pair of
+loose pantaloons, to which the more elegant add a fancy colored
+bandanna knotted about the head, with its wing-like ends flying in the
+wind; but shirts are a rarity in working hours and their absence shows
+a breadth of shoulder and depth of chest remarkable, when contrasted
+with the length and lank power in the nether limbs. They are a
+perfectly careless and jovial race, with wants confined to the only
+luxuries they know--plenty to eat, a short pipe and a plug of
+"nigger-head," with occasional drinks, of any kind and quantity that
+fall to their lot. Given these, they are as contented as princes; and
+their great eyes roll like white saucers and their splendid teeth flash
+in constant merriment.
+
+As we got further down the river, the flats became less frequent and
+high, steep bluffs took their place; and at every landing along these
+we laid-by for cotton and took in considerable quantities of "the
+king."
+
+Some of the bluffs were from sixty to eighty feet in height; and down
+these, the cotton came on slides. These, in most cases, were at an
+angle of forty-five degrees, or less; strongly constructed of heavy
+beams, cross-tied together and firmly pegged into the hard bluff-clay.
+A small, solid platform at the bottom completed the slide.
+
+Scarcely would the plank be run out when the heavy bales came bounding
+down the slide, gaining momentum at every yard of descent, till at the
+bottom they had the velocity of a cannon-ball. The dexterity and
+strength of the negroes were here wonderfully displayed.
+
+Standing at the edge of the boat--or at the foot of the slide, as the
+conformation of the landing indicated--heavy cotton-hook in hand, they
+watch the descending bale, as it bounds fiercely toward them; and just
+at the right moment two men, with infinite dexterity of hand and
+certainty of eye, strike their hooks firmly into the bagging--holding
+on to the plunging mass and going with it halfway across the boat. Full
+in front of it a third stands, like a _matador_ ready for the blow; and
+striking his hook deep in the end, by a sudden and simultaneous twist
+the three stand the bale upon end. Once stopped, two or three more
+jerks of the hooks and it is neatly stowed away alongside, or on top
+of, its fellows.
+
+One constantly sees huge bales of from five to six hundred pounds bound
+down a slide eighty feet high--scarcely touching the rail more than
+three times in their steep descent--looking almost round from the
+rapidity of their motion. Yet two negroes drive their hooks into, and
+spin along with them; visibly checking their speed, till the third one
+"heads up" and stops them still, in half a boat's width.
+
+Sometimes a hook slips, the bagging gives, or the footing yields, when
+the mixed mass of man and bale rolls across the boat and goes under
+together. But frightful as it looks to unaccustomed eyes, a more
+serious accident than a ducking seldom occurs; and at that, the banks
+resound with the yells of laughter Sambo sends after his
+brother-in-water.
+
+"We've pretty thoroughly done the boat," said Styles, about midday.
+"Let's go up to the professor's den and see if his head aches from 'ze
+Van Dorn.'"
+
+So up we mounted, passing on the way the faro bank, that advertises its
+neighborhood by most musical jingling of chips and half dollars.
+
+"Hello, Spring Chicken," cried Styles, to a youth in a blue sack with
+shoulder straps, who sat at the door of a state-room near by. "Look out
+for the tiger! I hear him about."
+
+"No danger, me boy," responded the youth. "I'm too old a stager for
+that."
+
+"Aye, aye! we seen that before," put in his companion, a buttoned
+middie of eighteen, innocent of beard. "A confounded pigeon came by
+here just now, jingling his halves and pretending he'd won 'em. Wasting
+time! Wasn't he, Styles? _We're_ too old birds to be caught with
+chaff."
+
+"Look alive, my hearty," answered Staple, "You're pretty near the
+beast, and mamma doesn't know you're out." With which paternal
+admonition we ascended.
+
+The professor was still in a deep sleep; having been transferred by the
+aid of a deck hand, or two, to his bower. This was a box of a
+state-room six feet by nine, in which was a most dilapidated
+double-bass, a violin case and a French horn. Over the berth, a cracked
+guitar hung by a greasy blue ribbon. Staple waked him without
+ceremony--ordered Congress water, pulled out the instruments; and soon
+we were in "a concord of sweet sounds," the like of which the mermaids
+of the Alabama had not heard before.
+
+Suddenly, in the midst of a roaring chorus, there was a short, heavy
+jar that sent us pellmell across the state-room; then a series of
+grinding jolts; and, amid the yelling of orders, jangling of bells and
+backing of the wheels, the boat swung slowly round by the bows. We were
+hard and fast aground!
+
+Of all the unpleasant episodes of river travel, the worst by far is to
+be grounded in the daytime. The dreary monotony of bank and stream as
+you glide by increases ten-fold when lying, hour after hour, with
+nothing to do but gaze at it. Under this trial the jolliest faces grow
+long and dismal; quiet men become dreadfully blue and the saturnine
+look actually suicidal. Even the negro hands talk under their breath,
+and the broad _Yah! Yah!_ comes less frequently from below decks.
+
+Here we lay, two miles above Selma--hard and fast, with engines and
+anchors equally useless to move us a foot--until midnight. About
+sundown an up-boat passed just across our bows. Little is the sympathy
+a grounded boat gets unless actually in danger. Every soul aboard of
+her, from captain to cook's boy, seemed to think us fair game, and
+chaff of all kinds was hailed from her decks. But she threw us a Selma
+paper of that evening, and a hundred eager hands were stretched over
+the side to catch it.
+
+It fell at the feet of a slight, wiry man of about fifty, with
+twinkling gray eyes, prominent features and fierce gray moustache.
+There was something in his manner that kept the more ardent ones from
+plucking it out of his fingers, as he stooped quietly to pick it up;
+but few on board ever knew that their quiet fellow-passenger was the
+most widely known "rebel of them all."
+
+Many a man has read, with quickening breath, of the bold deeds of
+Admiral Raphael Semmes; and some have traced his blazing track to the,
+perhaps, Quixotic joust that ended his wild sea-kingship, never
+recalling that impassive fellow-passenger. Yet it was he who, seated on
+the rail of the "Southern Republic," read to the crowd that evening.
+
+"What's the Washington news?"--"Anything more from Virginia!"--"What
+about Tennessee convention?"--"Has Bragg commenced business?"--and a
+thousand equally eager questions popped from the impatient crowd.
+
+"There _is_ news, indeed!" answered Captain Semmes. "Listen, my
+friends, for the war has commenced in earnest."
+
+And here, on the quiet southern river, we first heard how Baltimore had
+risen to drive out the troops; how there had been wild work made in
+spite of the police, and how hot blood of her citizens had stained the
+streets of the town. The account ended with the city still in frightful
+commotion, the people arming and companies assembling at their
+armories; and without even hinting the number of those hurt in the
+fight.
+
+No more _ennui_ on board now. All was as much excitement as if we
+were racing along again; and, through the buzz and angry exclamations
+of the knots collected on all hands, we could catch the most varied
+predictions of the result, and speculations as to President Lincoln's
+real policy.
+
+"Maryland must act at once. Egad, sir, _at once_, if she wants to come
+to us, sir," said the colonel, haranguing his group. "If she doesn't,
+egad! she'll be tied hand and foot in a week! _Facilis descensus_, you
+know!"
+
+"Pshaw, Baltimore's noted for mobs," said an Alabamian. "This is only a
+little more than usual. In a week she'll forget all about it."
+
+"This is more than a mob," answered a Virginian quietly. "Blood must
+come out of it; for the people will all go one way now, or make two
+strong and bitter parties. For my part, I believe Maryland will be with
+us before the boat gets off."
+
+Late at night we swung loose and rushed past Selma, with the calliope
+screaming "Dixie" and "ze Van Dorn;" for the professor was himself
+again and waxed irate and red-patriotic over the news. We could get no
+more papers, however; so suspense and speculation continued until we
+reached Mobile.
+
+There we heard of the quelling of the riot; of the course of the
+citizens; of Mr. Lincoln's pledges to the Baltimore committee, that no
+more troops should pass through the town; of his statement that those
+already passed were only intended for the defense of the Capital.
+
+"Pretty fair pledges, Colonel," said Styles, when we got this last
+news.
+
+"Fair pledges!" responded the colonel, with serious emphasis, "Egad,
+sir!--_we've lost a State!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+MOBILE, THE GULF CITY.
+
+
+Mobile was in a state of perfect ferment when we arrived. The news from
+Maryland had made profound sensation and had dissipated the delusive
+hopes--indulged there as well as in Montgomery--like mists before the
+sun.
+
+All now agreed that war must come. Many thought it already upon them.
+Groups, anxious and steadfast, filled the hotels, the clubs and the
+post-office; and the sense of all was that Maryland had spoken not one
+hour too soon; having spoken, the simple duty of the South was to
+prevent harm to a hair of her head for words said in its defense.
+
+Those who had been the hottest in branding the action of Virginia as
+laggard, looked to her for the steadiest and most efficient aid, now
+that the crisis faced them; while all felt she would meet the calls of
+the hour with never a pause for the result. The sanguine counted on
+Maryland, bound by every community of interest, every tie of
+sympathy--as already one of the Confederate States. She was no longer
+neutral, they said. She had put her lance in rest and rallied to the
+charge, in the avowed quarrel that the troops attacked were on their
+way to oppress her next sister. And nothing could follow but Virginia's
+bright falchion must flash out, and the states must lock shields and
+press between her and the giant she had roused.
+
+The Gulf City had not been idle. The echo of the first gun at
+Charleston had roused her people; and with a wonderful accord they had
+sprung to arms. Law books were thrown aside, merchants locked up their
+ledgers, even students of theology forgot that they were men of
+peace--and all enrolled themselves in the "crack" companies. No wonder,
+when the very best blood of the state ran in the veins of the humblest
+private; when men of letters and culture and wealth refused any but
+"the post of honor," with musket on shoulder; when the most delicate
+fingers of their fairest worked the flags that floated over them, and
+the softest voices urged them to their _devoir_; no wonder, then, that
+high on the roll of fame are now written the names of the Mobile
+Cadets--of the Gulf City Guards--of the Rifles--and enough others to
+make the list as long as Leporello's. Not one in ten of the best born
+youth of Mobile remained at home; the mechanics, the stevedores and
+men of every class flocked to follow their example, so that the city
+alone gave two full regiments and helped to fill up others. The news
+from Virginia and Maryland had given but a fresh impetus to these
+preparations; and, before my return to Montgomery, these regiments had
+passed through, on their way to the new battle ground on the Potomac
+frontier.
+
+On the night of our arrival in the Gulf City, that escape valve for all
+excitement, a dense crowd, collected in front of the Battle House and
+Colonel John Forsyth addressed them from the balcony. He had just
+returned from Washington with the southern commissioners and gave, he
+said, a true narrative of the manner and results of their mission. At
+this lapse of time it is needless to detail even the substance of his
+speech; but it made a marked impression on the crowd, as the surging
+sea of upturned faces plainly told. John Forsyth, already acknowledged
+one of the ablest of southern leaders, was a veritable Harry Hotspur.
+His views brooked no delay or temporizing; and, as he spoke, in vein of
+fiery elegance, shouts and yells of defiant approval rose in full swell
+of a thousand voices. Once he named a noted Alabamian, whom he
+seemingly believed to have played a double part in these negotiations;
+and the excited auditory greeted his name with hisses and execrations.
+That they did their fellow-citizen injustice the most trying councils
+of the war proved; for he soon after came South and wrought, with all
+the grand power in him, during the whole enduring struggle.
+
+Staple was tired of politics, and hated a crowd; so he soon lounged
+off to the club, an institution gotten up with a delightful regard to
+the most comfortable arrangement and the most accomplished _chef_ in
+the South. There one met the most cordial hospitality, the neatest
+entertainment and the very best wines in the Gulf section. The cook was
+an artist, as our first supper declared; and play could be found, too,
+as needed; for young Mobile was not slow, and money, in those days, was
+plenty.
+
+Altogether, the tone of Mobile society was more cosmopolitan than that
+of any city of the South, save, perhaps, New Orleans. It may be that
+its commercial connections, reaching largely abroad, produced the
+effect; or that propinquity to and constant intercourse with its sister
+city induced freer mode of thought and action. Located at the head of
+her beautiful bay, with a wide sweep of blue water before her, the
+cleanly-built, unpaved streets gave Mobile a fresh, cool aspect. The
+houses were fine and their appointments in good, and sometimes
+luxurious, taste. The society was a very pleasure-loving organization,
+enjoying the gifts of situation, of climate and of fortune to their
+full. _On dit_, it sometimes forgot the Spartan code; but the
+stranger was never made aware of that, for it ever sedulously
+remembered good taste.
+
+Between the drives, dinners and other time-killers, one week slipped
+around with great rapidity; and we could hardly realize it when the
+colonel looked over his newspaper at breakfast and said:
+
+"Last day, boys! Egad! the cooking here _is_ a little different from
+Montgomery--but we must take the 'Cuba' this evening."
+
+So adieux were spoken, and at dusk we went aboard the snug, neat little
+Gulf steamer of the New Orleans line. She was a trimmer craft than our
+floating card-house of river travel, built for a little outside work in
+case of necessity, or the chances of a norther.
+
+We scudded merrily down the bay towards Fort Morgan, the grim sentinel
+sitting dark and lonely at the harbor's mouth and showing a row of
+teeth that might be a warning. The fort was now put in thorough repair
+and readiness by Colonel Hardee, of the regular army of the Confederate
+States.
+
+I was following Styles down from the upper deck, when we heard high
+voices from the end of the boat, and recognized one exclaiming:
+
+"Curse you! I'll cut your ear off!"
+
+Round the open bar we found an excited crowd, in the center of which
+was our worldly-minded middie of river-boat memory and "Spring
+Chicken," his colleague; both talking very loud, and the latter
+exhibiting a bowie-knife half as long as himself. By considerable talk
+and more elbowing, we made our way to the boys; and, with the aid of a
+friendly stoker, got them both safely in my state-room.
+
+Once there, the man of the world--who, unlike the needy knife-grinder,
+had a story--told it. After getting on the boat, Spring Chicken had
+been taking mint with sugar and something; and he took it once too
+often. Seeing this, the worldling tried to get him forward to his
+state-room; but, as we passed the fort, a jolly passenger, who had also
+taken mint, waved his hat at the fortification and cried out:
+
+"Hurrah for Muggins!"
+
+Spring Chicken stopped, balanced himself on his heels and announced
+with much dignity--
+
+"Sir, _I_ am Muggins!"
+
+"Didn't know you, Muggins," responded the shouter, who fortunately had
+not taken fighting whisky. "Beg pardon, Muggins! Hurrah for Peacock!
+_Yah--a-h!_"
+
+"See here, my good fellow, I'm Peacock!" repeated Spring Chicken.
+
+"The thunder you are! You can't be two people!"
+
+"Sir!" responded Spring Chicken, with even greater dignity, "I do
+not--_hic_--desire to argue with you. I am Peacock!"
+
+The man laughed. "The Peacock I mean is a northern man----"
+
+"_I'm_ a northern man," yelled the now irate Spring Chicken. "Curse
+you, sir! what are my principles to you? I'll cut your ear off!" And it
+was this peaceful proposition that attracted our attention, in time to
+prevent any trouble with the ugly knife he drew from his back.
+
+Spring Chicken had remained passive during the recital of the more
+sober worldling. Sundry muttered oaths had sufficed him until it was
+over, when he made the lucid explanation:
+
+"Reas'l didl't--_hic_--dam decoy--bet ol red--ev'ry cent--_hic_!"
+
+This the worldling translated and the murder was out. When we lost
+sight of the boys on the Southern Republic, they had ordered wine. At
+dinner they had more; and--glowing therewith, as they sat over their
+cigars on the gallery--did not "stop their ears," but, on the contrary,
+"listed to the voice of the charmer." When the stool pigeon once more
+stood in the doorway, rattling his half dollars, they followed him into
+the den of the tiger.
+
+"Faro" went against them; "odd-and-even" was worse; _rouge-et-noir_
+worst of all; and at night they were sober and dead broke, an
+unpleasant but not infrequent phase of boat life.
+
+"Didl't have aly wash to spout," remarked Spring Chicken, with his head
+under his arm.
+
+"Yes--we owed our wine bill," continued the middie, whose worldliness
+decreased as he got sober, "and our trunk was in pawn to the nigger we
+owed a quarter for taking care of it. So as soon as the boat touched, I
+ran for'ard and jumped off, while he waited to keep the things in sight
+till I came back."
+
+"So he was in pawn, too, egad!" said the colonel.
+
+"Thasso, ol' cock!" hiccoughed Spring Chicken.
+
+"And when I got the money and we went up town, we met the cussed decoy
+again, and we were fools enough to go again----"
+
+"Williz molley--damniz--_hic_--eyes!" interpolated the other.
+
+"----And we got broke again--and this fellow that hollowed Muggins
+looked like the decoy, but he wasn't. That's the whole truth, Mr.
+Styles."
+
+"Mussput--_hic_--fi dollus on-jack?" remarked Spring Chicken. "See
+yer, Styse--o'boy, damfattolman--Con'l is!" and he curled from the
+lounge to the floor and slept peacefully.
+
+"My young friend," remarked Styles gravely to the middie, as we tucked
+the insensible Spring Chicken into his berth--"If you want to gamble,
+you'll do it--so I don't advise you. But these amphibious beasts are
+dangerous; so in future play with gentlemen and let them alone."
+
+"And, my boy," said the colonel, enunciating _his_ moral lesson--"gambling
+is bad enough, egad! but any man is lost--yes, sir, lost!--who will drink
+mint--_after dinner!_"
+
+With which great moral axioms we retired and slept until our steamer
+reached the "Queen City of the South."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+NEW ORLEANS, THE CRESCENT CITY.
+
+
+At a first glimpse, New Orleans of those days was anything but a
+picturesque city. Built upon marshy flats, below the level of the river
+and protected from inundation by the Levee, her antique and weathered
+houses seemed to cower and cluster together as though in fear.
+
+But for a long time, "The Crescent City" had been at the head of
+commercial importance--and the desideratum of direct trade had been
+more nearly filled by her enterprising merchants than all others in the
+South. The very great majority of the wealthy population was either
+Creole, or French; and their connection with European houses may
+account in some measure for that fact. The coasting trade at the war
+was heavy all along the Gulf shore; the trade with the islands a source
+of large revenue, and there were lines and frequent private enterprises
+across the ocean.
+
+For many reasons, it was then believed New Orleans could never become a
+great port. Foremost, the conformation of the Delta, at the mouth of
+the river, prevented vessels drawing over fifteen feet--at most
+favorable tides--from crossing either of the three bars; and the most
+practical and scientific engineers, both of civil life and the army,
+had long tried in vain to remedy the defect for longer than a few
+weeks. Numerous causes have been assigned for the rapid reformation of
+these bars; the chemical action of the salt upon the vegetable matter
+in the river water; the rapid deposit of alluvium as the current
+slackens; and a churning effect produced by the meeting of the channel
+with the waves of the Gulf. They could not be successfully removed,
+however, and were a great drawback to the trade of the city; which its
+location at the mouth of the great water avenue of the whole West,
+makes more advantageous than any other point in the South.
+
+The river business in cotton, sugar and syrup was, at this time,
+immense; and the agents of the planters--factor is the generic
+term--made large fortunes in buying and selling at a merely nominal
+rate of percentage. The southern planter of _ante-bellum_ days was
+a man of ease and luxury, careless of business and free to excess with
+money; and relations between him and his agent were entirely unique.
+
+He had the same factor for years, drawing when he pleased for any
+amount, keeping open books. When his crop came in, it was shipped to
+the factor, the money retained--subject to draft--or invested. But it
+was by no means rare, when reckoning day came, for the advance drafts
+to have left the planter in debt his whole crop to the factor. In that
+case it used to cost him a trip to Europe, or a summer at Saratoga
+only; and he stayed on his plantation and did not cry over the spilt
+milk, however loudly his ladies may have wailed for the missing
+_creme-de-la-creme_ of Virginia springs.
+
+The morning after arrival we at last saw "the house;" which, far from
+being an imposing edifice, was a dingy, small office, just off the
+Levee, with the dingier sign of "Long, Staple & Middling" over the
+door. There were a few stalwart negroes basking in the sun about the
+entrance, sleeping comfortably in the white glare, or showing glancing
+ivories, in broad grins--each one keeping his shining cotton hook in
+full view, like a badge of office. Within was a perfect steam of
+business, and Staple _pere_ was studying a huge ledger through a pair
+of heavy gold spectacles--popping orders like fire-crackers, at half a
+dozen attentive clerks. Long, the senior partner, was in Virginia--and
+Middling, the junior, was hardly more than an expert foreman of the
+establishment.
+
+"Happy, indeed, to meet you, sir!--93 of Red River lot, Mr. Edds--Heard
+of you frequently--Terribly busy time these, sir, partner away--13,094
+middlins, for diamond B at 16-1/3, Adams--. We dine at seven, you
+remember Styles--Don't be in a hurry, sir!--1,642 A.B., page 684,
+Carter--Good day--See you at seven."
+
+And it was only over the perfect claret, at the emphasized hour, that
+we discovered Mr. Staple to be a man of fine mind and extensive culture,
+a hearty sympathizer in the rebellion--into which he would have
+thrown his last dollar--and one of the most successful men on the
+Levee. Long, his senior partner, was a western man of hard, keen
+business sense, who had come to New Orleans fifty years before, a
+barefooted deck-hand on an Ohio schooner. By shrewdness, dogged
+industry and some little luck, he made "Long's" the best known and
+richest house in the South-west, until in the crash of '37 it
+threatened to topple down forever. Then Mr. Staple came forward with
+his great credit and large amount of spare capital, saved the house and
+went into it himself; while Middling, the former clerk of all work, was
+promoted, for fidelity in the trying times, to a small partnership.
+
+Like all the heavy cotton men of the South, Mr. Staple believed firmly
+that cotton was king, and that the first steamer into a southern port
+would bring a French and British minister.
+
+"It's against our interest for the present to do so," he said,
+confidently; "but my partner and I have advised all our planters to
+hold their cotton instead of shipping it, that the market may not be
+glutted when the foreign ships come in. And, yet, sir, it's coming down
+now faster than ever. Everybody prefers, in the disorganized state of
+things, to have ready money for cotton, that in three months' time must
+be worth from twenty to thirty cents!"
+
+"Hard to believe, sir, isn't it? Yet our planters, looking at things
+from their own contracted standpoint, think the English and French
+cabinets will defer recognition of our Government. As for 'the house,'
+sir, it will put all it possesses into the belief that they can not
+prove so blind!"
+
+Like most of the wealthy men in New Orleans, Mr. Staple had a
+charmingly located villa a mile from the lake and drove out every
+evening, after business hours, to pass the night.
+
+"Not that I fear the fever," he explained. "What strangers regard as
+such certain death is to us scarce more than the agues of a North
+Carolina flat. 'Yellow Jack' is a terrible scourge, indeed, to the
+lower classes, and to those not acclimatized. The heavy deposits of
+vegetable drift from the inundations leave the whole country for miles
+coated four or five inches deep in creamy loam. This decomposes most
+rapidly upon the approach of hot weather, and the action of the dews,
+when they begin to fall upon it, causes the _miasmata_ to rise in dense
+and poisonous mists. Now these, of course, are as bad in country--except
+in very elevated localities--as in town; but they are only _dangerous_
+in crowded sections, or to the enervated constitutions that could as
+ill resist any other disease."
+
+"You astonish me, indeed," I answered. "For I have always classed
+yellow fever and cholera as twin destroyers. They must be, from such
+seasons as you have every few years."
+
+"So all strangers think. But to the resident, who from choice, or
+business engagements, has passed one summer in the city, 'Jack' loses
+his terrors. The symptoms are unmistakable. Slight nausea and pain in
+the back, headache and a _soupcon_ of chill. The workingman feels
+these. He can not spare the time or the doctor's bill, perhaps. He
+poohs the matter--it will pass off--and goes to work. The delay and the
+sun set the disease; and he is brought home at night--or staggers to
+the nearest hospital--to die of the black vomit in thirty-six hours.
+Hence, the great mortality.
+
+"Now, I feel these pains, I at once recognize the fever, go right home,
+bathe feet and back in hot water, take a strong aperient, put mustard
+on my stomach and pile on the blankets. In an hour I am bathed in sweat
+till maybe it drips through the mattress. I put on another blanket,
+take a hot draught with an opiate, and go to sleep. It is not a
+pleasant thing, with the thermometer at ninety degrees in the shade;
+but when I wake in the morning, I have saved an attack of fever."
+
+This regimen was constantly repeated to me. In the district crowded
+with the poorer classes, who are dependent on their daily labor for
+their daily bread, the fever stalks gaunt and noisome, marking his
+victims and seldom in vain. All day long, and far into the night in bad
+seasons, the low, dull rumble of the dead-cart echoed through the
+narrow streets; and at the door of every squalid house was the plain
+pine box that held what was left of some one of its loved inmates. Yet
+through this carnival of death, steadily and fearlessly, the better
+class of workers walk; not dreading the contagion and secure in their
+harness of precaution.
+
+To sleep in the infected atmosphere in sickly quarters was thought more
+dangerous; but any business man considered himself safe, if he only
+breathed the poisonous air in the daytime. The resident physicians, in
+their recent treatment, feel the disease quite in their hands, when no
+other foe than the fever is to be combated. Any preceding excess of
+diet, drink or excitement is apt to aggravate it; but in ordinary
+cases, where proper remedies are taken in season, nine out of ten
+patients recover.
+
+Otherwise, this ratio is just reversed; and in the working
+classes--especially strangers--to take the fever, in bad years, is to
+die. The utmost efforts of science, the most potent drugs--even the
+beautiful and selfless devotion of the "Howard Association" and its
+like--availed nothing in the wrestle with the grim destroyer, when he
+had once fairly clutched his hold. And in the crowded quarters, where
+the air was poison without the malaria, his footing was too sure for
+mortal to prevail against him.
+
+New Orleans was, at this time, divided into two distinct towns in one
+corporation--the French and American. In the one, the French language
+was spoken altogether for social and business purposes, and even in
+the courts. The theaters were French, the cafes innocent of English,
+and, as Hood says, the "very children speak it." Many persons grow
+up in this quarter--or did in years back--who never, to their old
+age, crossed to the American town or spoke one word of English. In
+the society of the old town, one found a miniature--exact to the
+photograph--of Paris. It was jealously exclusive, and even the most
+petted beaux of the American quarter deemed it privilege to enter it. A
+stranger must come with letters of the most urgent kind before he could
+cross its threshold. All the etiquette and form of the _ancien regime_
+obtained here--the furniture, the dress, the cookery, the dances were
+all French.
+
+In the American town the likeness to Mobile was very marked, in the
+manners and style of the people. The young men of the French quarter
+had sought this society more of late years, finding in it a freedom
+from restraint, for which their associations with other Americans in
+business gave them a taste. The character of the society was gay and
+easy--and it was not hedged in so carefully as that of the old town.
+Strangers were cordially--if not very carefully--welcomed into it; and
+the barriers of reserve, that once protected it, were rapidly breaking
+down before the inroads of progress and petroleum.
+
+The great hotels--the "St. Charles," "St. Louis" and others--were
+constantly filled with the families of planters from all points of the
+river and its branches, and with travelers from the Atlantic border as
+well. Many of these were people of cultivation and refinement; but
+many, alas! the roughest of diamonds with a western freedom of
+expression and solidity of outline, that is national but not agreeable.
+In the season these people overflowed the hotels, where they had
+constant hops with, occasionally, splendid balls and even masques. Many
+of them were "objects of interest" to the young men about town, by
+reason of papa's business, or Mademoiselle's proper bank account. So
+the hotels--though not frequented by the ladies of the city at
+all--became, each year, more and more thronged by the young men; and
+consequently, each year, the outsiders gained a very gradual, but more
+secure, footing near the home society and even began to force their way
+into it.
+
+It must be confessed that some damsels from Red River wore diamonds at
+breakfast; and that young ladies from Ohio would drive tandem to the
+lake! And then their laughs and jokes at a soiree would give a dowager
+from Frenchtown an apoplexy!
+
+_Que voulez vous?_ Pork is mighty! and cotton was king!
+
+There was much difference of opinion as to the morals of the Crescent
+City. For my own part, I do not think the men were more dissipated than
+elsewhere, though infinitely more wedded to enjoyment and fun in every
+form. There was the French idea prevalent that gambling was no harm;
+and it was indulged to a degree certainly hurtful to many and ruinous
+to some. From the climate and the great prevalence of light wines,
+there was less drunkenness than in most southern towns; and if other
+vices prevailed to any great extent--they were either gracefully
+hidden, or so sanctioned by custom as to cause no remark, except by
+straight-laced strangers.
+
+Oh! the delicious memories of the city of old! The charming cordiality
+to be found in no colder latitude, the cosy breakfasts that prefaced
+days of real enjoyment--the midnight revels of the _bal masque_! And
+then the carnival!--those wild weeks when the Lord of Misrule wields
+his motley scepter--leading from one reckless frolic to another till
+_Mardi Gras_ culminates in a giddy whirl of delirious fun on which,
+at midnight, Lent drops a somber veil!
+
+Sad changes the war has wrought since then!
+
+The merry "Krewe of Comus" has been for a time replaced by the
+conquering troops of the Union; the _salons_ where only the best and
+brightest had collected have been sullied by a conquering soldiery; and
+their leader has waged a vulgar warfare on the noble womanhood his
+currish spirit could not gaze upon without a fruitless effort to
+degrade.
+
+Of the resident ladies, I can only say that to hear of a fast one--in
+ordinary acceptation of that term--was, indeed, rare.
+
+The young married woman monopolized more of the society and its beaux
+than would be very agreeable to New York belles; but, if they borrowed
+this custom from their French neighbors, I have not heard that they
+also took the license of the Italian.
+
+Public and open improprieties were at once frowned down, and people of
+all grades and classes seemed to make their chief study good taste.
+This is another French graft, on a stem naturally susceptible, of which
+the consequences can be seen from the hair ribbon of the _bonne_ to the
+decoration of the Cathedral.
+
+The women of New Orleans, as a rule, dress with more taste--more
+perfect adaptation of form and color to figure and complexion--than any
+in America. On a dress night at the opera, at church, or at a ball, the
+_toillettes_ are a perfect study in their exquisite fitness--their
+admirable blending of simplicity and elegance. Nor is this confined to
+the higher and more wealthy classes. The women of lower conditions are
+admirably imitative; and on Sunday afternoons, where they crowd to hear
+the public bands with husbands and children, all in their best, it is
+the rarest thing to see a badly-trimmed bonnet or an ill-chosen
+costume. The men, in those days, dressed altogether in the French
+fashion; and were, consequently, the worst dressed in the world.
+
+The most independent and obtrusively happy people one noticed in New
+Orleans were the negroes. They have a sleek, shiny blackness here,
+unknown to higher latitudes; and from its midst the great white
+eyeballs and large, regular teeth flash with a singular brilliance.
+Sunday is _their_ day peculiarly--and on the warm afternoons, they bask
+up and down the thoroughfares in the gaudiest of orange and scarlet
+bandannas. But their day is fast passing away; and in place of the
+simple, happy creatures of a few years gone, we find the discontented
+and besotted idler--squalid and dirty.
+
+The cant of to-day--that the race problem, if left alone, will settle
+itself--may have some possible proof in the distant future; but the few
+who are ignorant enough to-day to believe the "negro question" already
+settled may find that they are yet but on the threshold of the
+"irrepressible conflict" between nature and necessity.
+
+To the natural impressibility of the southron, the Louisianian adds the
+enthusiasm of the Frenchman. At the first call of the governor for
+troops, there had been readiest response; and here, as in Alabama, the
+very first young men of the state left office and counting-room and
+college to take up the musket. Two regiments of regulars, in the state
+service, were raised to man the forts--"Jackson" and "St. Philip"--that
+guarded the passes below the city. These were composed of the
+stevedores and workingmen generally, and were officered by such young
+men as the governor and council deemed best fitted. The Levee had been
+scoured and a battalion of "Tigers" formed from the very lowest of the
+thugs and plugs that infested it, for Major Bob Wheat, the well-known
+filibuster.
+
+Poor Wheat! His roving spirit still and his jocund voice now mute, he
+sleeps soundly under the sighing trees of Hollywood--that populous
+"city of the silent" at Richmond. It was his corps of which such wild
+and ridiculous stories of bowie-knife prowess were told at the Bull Run
+fight. They, together with the "Crescent Rifles," "Chasseurs-a-pied"
+and "Zouaves," were now at Pensacola.
+
+The "Rifles" was a crack corps, composed of some of the best young men
+in New Orleans; and the whole corps of "Chasseurs" was of the same
+material. They did yeomen's service in the four years, and the last one
+saw very few left of what had long since ceased to be a separate
+organization. But of all the gallant blood that was shed at the call of
+the state, none was so widely known as the "Washington Artillery." The
+best men of Louisiana had long upheld and officered this battalion as a
+holiday pageant; and, when their merry meetings were so suddenly
+changed to stern alarums, to their honor be it said, not one was
+laggard.
+
+In the reddest flashings of the fight, on the dreariest march through
+heaviest snows, or in the cozy camp under the summer pines, the
+_guidon_ of the "W.A." was a welcome sight to the soldier of the
+South--always indicative of cheer and of duty willingly and thoroughly
+done.
+
+It was very unwillingly that I left New Orleans on a transport, with a
+battalion of Chasseurs for Pensacola. Styles was to stay behind for the
+present, and then go on some general's staff; so half the amusement of
+my travel was gone. "The colonel" was _desole_.
+
+"_Such_ a hotel as the St. Charles!" he exclaimed, with tears in his
+voice--"such soups. Ah! my boy, after the war I'll come here to
+live--yes, sir, to live! It's the only place to get a dinner. Egad,
+sir, out of New Orleans _nobody_ cooks!"
+
+I suggested comfort in the idea of red snapper at Pensacola.
+
+"Red fish is good in itself. Egad, I think it _is_ good," replied the
+colonel. "But eaten in camp, with a knife, sir--egad, with a knife--off
+a tin plate! _Pah!_ You've never lived in camp." And in a hollow,
+oracular whisper, he added: "Wait!"
+
+And they were real models, the New Orleans hotels of those days, and
+the colonel's commendations were but deserved. In _cuisine_, service
+and wines, they far surpassed any on this continent; and for variety of
+patrons they were unequaled anywhere.
+
+Two distinct sets inhabited the larger ones, as antagonistic as oil and
+water. The _habitues_, easy, critical to a degree, and particular to a
+year about their wines, lived on comfortably and evenly, enjoying the
+very best of the luxurious city, and never having a cause for
+complaint. The up-river people flocked in at certain seasons by the
+hundred. They crowded the lobbies, filled the spare bed-rooms, and eat
+what was put before them, with but little knowledge save that it was
+French. These were the business men, who came down for a new engagement
+with a factor, or to rest after the summer on the plantation. One-half
+of them were terribly busy; the other half having nothing to do after
+the first day--they always stay a week--and assuming an air of high
+criticism that was as funny to the knowing ones as expensive to them.
+
+At our hotel, one evening, as favored guests, we found ourselves on an
+exploring tour with mine host. It ended in the wine-room.
+
+The mysteries of that vaulted chamber were seldom opened to the outer
+world; and passing the _profanum vulgus_ in its first bins, we listened
+with eager ears and watering mouths to recital of the pedigree and
+history of the dwellers within.
+
+Long rows of graceful necks, golden crowned and tall, peered over dust
+and cobwebs of near a generation; bottles aldermanic and plethoric
+seemed bursting with the hoarded fatness of the vine; clear, white
+glass burned a glowing ruby with the Burgundy; and lean, jaundiced
+bottles--carefully bedded like rows of invalids--told of rare and
+priceless Hocks.
+
+From arch to arch our garrulous _cicerone_ leads us, with a heightened
+relish as we get deeper among his treasures and further away from the
+daylight.
+
+"There!" he exclaims at last with a great gulp of triumph. "There!
+that's _Sherry_, the king of wines! Ninety years ago, the Conde Pesara
+sent that wine in his own ships. Ninety years ago--and for twenty it
+has lain in my cellar, never touched but by my own hand"--and he holds
+up the candle to the shelf, inch deep in dust, while the light seems to
+dart into the very heart of the amber fluid, and sparkle and laugh back
+again from the fantastic drapery the spiders had festooned around the
+bottles. "Yes, all the Pesaras are dead years gone; and only this blood
+of the vine is left of them."
+
+"But you _don't_ sell that wine!" gasps the colonel. "Egad! you don't
+sell it to those--people--up stairs!"
+
+"I did _once_"--and mine host sighs. "A great cotton man came
+down. He was a king on the river--he wanted the best! Money was nothing
+to him, so I whispered of this, and said twenty dollars the bottle!
+And, Colonel, he didn't--_like it!_"
+
+"Merciful heaven!" the colonel waxes wroth.
+
+"So Francois there sent him a bottle of that _Xeres_ in the outer bin
+yonder--we sell it to you for two dollars the bottle--and he said
+_that_ was wine!"
+
+But of the other family--who live in an American hurry and eat by
+steam--was the goblin diner of whom a friend told me in accents of awe.
+One day, at the St. Charles, a resident stopped him on the way to their
+accustomed table:
+
+"Have you seen these people eat?" he asked. "No? Then we'll stop and
+look. This table is reserved for the up-river men who have little time
+in the city and make the most of it. While they swallow soup, a nimble
+waiter piles the nearest dishes around them, without regard to order or
+quality. They eat fish, roast and fried, on the same plate, swallowing
+six inches of knife blade at every bolt. Then they draw the nearest pie
+to them, cut a great segment in it, make three huge arcs therein with
+as many snaps of their teeth; seize a handful of nuts and raisins and
+rush away, with jaws still working like a flouring-mill. Ten minutes is
+their limit for dinner." My friend only smiled. The other adding:
+
+"You doubt it? Here comes a fine specimen; hot, healthy and evidently
+busy. See, he looks at his watch! I'll bet you a bottle of St. Peray he
+'does' his dinner within the ten."
+
+"Done"--and they sat opposite him, watch in hand.
+
+And that wonderful Hoosier dined in seven minutes!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A CHANGE OF BASE.
+
+
+Whatever activity and energetic preparation there may have been
+elsewhere, Pensacola was the first organized camp in the South. General
+Bragg and his adjutant-general were both old officers, and in the face
+of the enemy the utmost rigor of discipline prevailed. There had been
+no active operations on this line, yet; but the Alabama and the
+Louisiana troops collected--to the number of about nine thousand--had
+already become soldiers, in all the details of camp life; and went
+through it in as cheerful a spirit as if they had been born there.
+
+In popular view, both Bragg and Beauregard were on probation as yet;
+and it was thought that upon the management of their respective
+operations depended their status in the regular army. All was activity,
+drill and practice in this camp; and if the army of Pensacola was not a
+perfectly-disciplined one, the fault certainly was not with its
+general.
+
+The day we reached camp the President and Secretary of the Navy came
+down from Montgomery on a special train for an inspection. They were
+accompanied only by one or two officers, and had a long and earnest
+conference with General Bragg at his headquarters. After that there was
+a review of the army; and the then novel sight was made peculiarly
+effective by surroundings.
+
+On the level, white beach, glistening in the afternoon sun, were drawn
+up the best volunteer organizations of the South--line upon line, as
+far as the eye could reach--their bright uniforms, glancing muskets and
+waving banners giving color to the view. Far in the rear the fringed
+woods made dim background; while between, regular rows of white
+tents--laid out in regiments and company streets--dotted the plain.
+
+Out in the foreground stretched the blue waters of Pensacola harbor--the
+sun lighting up the occasional foam-crests into evanescent diamonds--the
+grim fortress frowning darkly on the rebellious display, while a full
+band on the parapet played the "Star Spangled Banner." Over to the
+left, half hidden under the rolling sand hills, stood Pensacola, with
+the navy yard and hospitals; and yellow little Fort McRea, saucy and
+rebellious, balanced it on the extreme right.
+
+As the President, with the general and his staff, galloped down the
+line, the band of each regiment struck up; and the wildest huzzas--not
+even restrained by the presence of their "incarnate discipline"--told
+how firm a hold Mr. Davis had taken upon the hearts of the army.
+
+By the time the review was over twilight had fallen; and a thousand
+camp-fires sprang up among the tents, with flickering, uncertain light.
+In it sat groups preparing their suppers and discussing what the visit
+and review might mean. Some said it was for the secretary to inspect
+the navy yard; some to examine into the defenses of the fort; and some
+said that it meant scaling ladders and a midnight assault.
+
+That night we had a jolly time of it in an Alabama captain's tent--with
+songs, cards and whisky punch, such as only "Mac" could brew. Even "the
+colonel" confessed himself beaten at his great trick; and in compliment
+drank tumbler after tumbler. As we walked over to our tent in the early
+mist before dawn, he said:
+
+"Egad! there's mischief brewing--mischief, sir! The seat of war's to be
+removed to Virginia and the capital to Richmond!"
+
+I stopped and looked at the colonel. Was it the punch?
+
+"That's what the council this evening meant?"
+
+"Just so. Bragg remains, but part of his garrison goes to Beauregard,
+in Virginia. Trains to Montgomery will be jammed now, so we'd better be
+off. And, egad, sir! I'm to get ready for the field. Yes, sir, for the
+field!"
+
+Next morning the information that had filtered to me through the
+colonel's punch was announced in orders, and enthusiastic cheers
+greeted the news that some of the troops were to go to a field
+promising active service and speedily at that.
+
+The routine of camp life had already begun to pall upon the better
+class of men, and all were equally anxious to go where they could prove
+more clearly how ready they were to do their _devoir_.
+
+Some Alabamians, two Georgia regiments, the _Chasseurs-a-pied_, the
+"Tigers" and the Zouaves were to go to Virginia; and through the
+courtesy of the officers of the latter corps, we got seats to
+Montgomery in their car; two days later.
+
+Meantime, all was hum and bustle through the whole camp, and as the
+limited rolling stock on the still unfinished railroad could only
+accommodate a regiment at a time, they left at all hours of the day, or
+night, that the trains arrived. Constantly at midnight the dull tramp
+of marching men and the slow tap of the drum, passing our quarters,
+roused us from sleep; and whatever the hour, the departing troops were
+escorted to the station by crowds of half-envious comrades, who "were
+left out in the cold." And as the trains started--box cars, flats and
+tenders all crowded, inside and out--yell after yell went up in
+stentorian chorus, echoing through the still woods, in place of
+
+    "That sweet old word, good-bye!"
+
+One gray dawn, six hundred Zouaves filed out of the pines and got
+aboard our train. They were a splendid set of animals; medium sized,
+sunburnt, muscular and wiry as Arabs; and a long, swingy gait told of
+drill and endurance. But the faces were dull and brutish, generally;
+and some of them would vie, for cunning villainy, with the features of
+the prettiest Turcos that Algeria could produce.
+
+The uniform was very picturesque and very--dirty. Full, baggy, scarlet
+trowsers, confined round the waist by the broad, blue band or sash,
+bearing the bowie-knife and meeting, at mid-leg, the white gaiter; blue
+shirt cut very low and exhibiting the brawny, sunburnt throat; jacket
+heavily braided and embroidered, flying loosely off the shoulders, and
+the jaunty _fez_, surmounting the whole, made a bright _ensemble_ that
+contrasted prettily with the gray and silver of the South Carolinians,
+or the rusty brown of the Georgians, who came in crowds to see them
+off.
+
+But the use of these uniforms about the grease and dust of Pensacola
+camp-fires had left marks that these soldiers considered badges of
+honor, not to be removed.
+
+Nor were they purer morally. Graduates of the slums of New Orleans,
+their education in villainy was naturally perfect. They had the vaguest
+ideas of _meum_ and _tuum_; and small personal difficulties were
+usually settled by the convincing argument of a bowie-knife, or brass
+knuckle.
+
+Yet they had been brought to a very perfect state of drill and
+efficiency. All commands were given in French--the native tongue of
+nearly all the officers and most of the men; and, in cases of
+insubordination, the former had no hesitancy in a free use of the
+revolver. A wonderful peacemaker is your six-shooter.
+
+They might be splendid fellows for a charge on the "Pet Lambs," or on
+a--pocket; but, on the whole, were hardly the men one would choose for
+partners in any business but a garroting firm, or would desire to have
+sleep in the company bedroom.
+
+Their officers we found of a class entirely above them; active, bright,
+enthusiastic Frenchmen, with a frank courtesy and soldierly bearing
+that were very taking. They occupied the rear car of the train, while
+the men filled the forward ones, making the woods ring with their wild
+yells, and the roaring chorus of the song of the _Zou-Zou_.
+
+We had crossed the gap at Garland, where the road was yet unfinished,
+and were soon at the breakfast house, where we mounted the hill in a
+body; leaving our car perfectly empty, save a couple of buglers who
+stood on the platform. As I looked back, the elder musician was a most
+perfect picture of the _Turco_. He had served in Algiers, and after the
+war in Italy brought a bullet in his leg to New Orleans. He was long
+past fifty--spare, broad-shouldered and hard as a log of oak. His sharp
+features were bronzed to the richest mahogany color, and garnished with
+a moustache and peak of grizzled hair "a cubit and a span"--or
+nearly--in length. And the short, grizzled hair had been shaved far
+back from his prominent temples, giving a sinister and grotesque effect
+to his naturally hard face. Turc was a favorite with the officers, and
+his dress was rather cleaner than that of the others; a difference that
+was hardly an improvement.
+
+We were just seated at breakfast--and having a special train we took
+our time--when a wild scream of the whistle, succeeded immediately by
+the heavy rumble of cars, came up the hill. We rushed to the windows,
+just in time to see a column of smoke disappearing round the curve and
+the officers' car standing solitary and empty on the road.
+
+The Zouaves had run away with the train!
+
+The language the officers used, as we surrounded the "sole
+survivors"--the two buglers--was, at least, strong; and short, hard
+words not in the church service dropped frequently from their lips.
+
+It was no use; the train had gone and the men with it, and the best we
+could do was to speculate on the intention of the runaways, while we
+waited the result of the telegrams sent to both ends of the line for
+another engine. At last it came puffing up, and we whirled at its full
+speed into Montgomery.
+
+Meanwhile the _Zou-Zous_ had several hours' start. Led by one ardent
+spirit--whose motto had been _similia similibus_, until he lost his
+balance of mind--they had uncoupled the officers' car and forced the
+engineers to take them on. On arriving at Montgomery, they wandered
+over the town, "going through" drinking houses until they became wild
+with liquor; then bursting open the groceries to get whisky, threatening
+the citizens and even entering private houses. The alarm became so
+great, as the Zouaves became more maddened, that the first Georgia
+regiment was ordered out and stationed by platoons, with loaded muskets
+and fixed bayonets, across the streets where the rioters were. Serious
+trouble was beginning, when the car with their officers dashed into the
+depot.
+
+The charge of the Light Brigade was surpassed by those irate Creoles.
+With the cars still in rapid motion, they leaped off, revolver in hand;
+and charged into the quarter where their drunken men were still engaged
+in every sort of excess. The old bugler still trotted at their head,
+his black eyes gleaming at the prospect of a row, and his bugle
+occasionally raised to sound the "rally." Into the midst of the drunken
+and yelling crowd dashed the officers; crackling French oaths rolling
+over their tongues with a snapping intonation, and their pistols
+whirling right and left like slung-shot, and dropping a mutineer at
+every blow. Habit and the rough usage overcame even the drunken frenzy
+of the men, and they dropped the plunder from their arms, snatched
+muskets from the corners they had been whirled into, and rapidly
+dressed into line in the street.
+
+I saw one beardless boy, slight and small, rush to a huge sergeant and
+order him into ranks. The soldier, a perfect giant, hesitated to drop
+the handful of shoes he had seized, only for a second. But that was
+enough. The youth had to jump from the ground to seize his throat; but,
+at the same moment, the stock of the heavy revolver crashed over his
+temple, and he fell like a stricken ox.
+
+"Roll that carrion into the street!" said the lieutenant to another
+soldier near; and before his order was obeyed the store was empty.
+
+In a half hour from the officers' arrival the battalion was mustered on
+Main street, and only nine absentees were reported at roll-call; but
+many a _fez_ was drawn far down over a bleeding forehead, and many a
+villainous countenance was lighted by one eye, while the other was
+closed and swollen.
+
+The colonel and I had jumped from the car and run on with our French
+friends; but the colonel was not the son of Atalanta, and by reason of
+a _soupcon_ of gout his feet were not beautiful upon Zion or any other
+place. Neither could he make them "swift to shed blood."
+
+As we entered the street where the rioters were, I turned and saw him,
+perfectly breathless, bear his two hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois
+against a door. It was not closed, but had only been slammed by the
+score of _Zou-Zous_ enjoying the whisky within; and as I looked I
+saw a dignified colonel in the C.S. army turn a complete somersault
+into a group of red-legged devils, who immediately closed around him.
+
+Gabriel Ravel, though a lighter man, never made a cleaner leap through
+the third story in the side-scene; but there was no time to waste and I
+went back at speed. I had scarcely turned when I saw the colonel's huge
+form tower among the red-legs. By the time I reached the door my
+apparition, revolver in hand, completed what he had begun; and they
+slipped by and vanished.
+
+Luckily the bar of the door had fallen with him, and the old gymnastics
+of other days coming back like a flash, he had seized it, made two
+rapid blows and laid as many of his assailants at his feet; roaring,
+meanwhile, oaths as thunderous as they were unintelligible.
+
+"_Sacre-e nom!_" he shouted as he saw me; "shoot 'em, me boy!
+_Poltrons_, egad! Laugh at me! D----n their eyes! _Can-n-naille!_"
+
+There was a wicked light in my fat friend's eye, and he had recovered
+his second wind; so we sallied out, the colonel still clinging to his
+weapon of chance.
+
+"Good enough for these dogs!" he roared, wrathfully shaking the bar.
+"Saves the pistol."
+
+That night at "the Ranche," as later about many a camp-fire, our French
+visitors declared that the colonel's bar had done more effective
+service than their revolvers; and, as it stood dented and blood-smeared
+in the corner of that vine-clad porch, it did not belie their praise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+EN ROUTE FOR THE BORDER.
+
+
+Very soon after their state went out of the Union, and it became
+settled that the policy of the central Government was to take
+possession of the border states by force, the people of Virginia
+decided that the battle was to be fought on her soil. Her nearness to
+Washington, the facility of land communication, and the availability of
+her waterways for transportation purposes, all pointed to this; and the
+southern Government also became aware that the Potomac boundary of the
+Confederacy was the one to be most jealously guarded. Under these
+circumstances, when the tender of the use of the state capital at
+Richmond was made to the Montgomery Government, the advantages of the
+move were at once apparent, and the proffer was promptly accepted.
+
+When we returned to Montgomery, preparations for removal were in such
+state of progress that the change would be made in a few days. Archives
+and public property not in daily use had already been sent on, and some
+of the force of the executive departments were already in the new
+capital, preparing for the reception of the remainder. Troops in large
+bodies had already been forwarded to Virginia from all parts of the
+South, and all indications were that, before the summer was over, an
+active campaign on the soil of the Old Dominion would be in progress.
+
+About this time, a telegram from Montgomery appeared in the New York
+_Tribune_, which created as much comment at the South as at the North.
+It stated, in so many words, that the whole South was in motion; that a
+few days would see Mr. Davis in Virginia at the head of thirty thousand
+men, Beauregard second in command. With the two sections in a state of
+open hostility, and with armies already in the field and manoeuvering
+for position, it was somewhat singular that the avowed correspondent of
+a northern journal should be allowed in the southern Capital; but, when
+his dispatches bore on their face some signs of authoritative sanction,
+it became stranger still.
+
+The correspondent of the _Tribune_ was a well-known lobby member of
+years standing, but avowedly a southern man. His intercourse with the
+leaders of the government was, at least, friendly, and his predictions
+and assertions in the columns of that newspaper were generally borne
+out in fact. The state of the country was an anomalous one, but this
+method of waging war was still more so.
+
+The history of the dispatch in question was simply this: There had been
+much jubilation in Montgomery over the news from Virginia. Serenades
+had been made, speeches delivered, and the invariable whisky had not
+been neglected.
+
+Late at night, I was shown a copy of this dispatch, as one about to be
+sent. On my doubting it, I was credibly informed that it had been shown
+to at least one cabinet officer, and received his approval. And it
+went!
+
+When it was finally settled that the Capital was to be moved to
+Virginia, the city of Montgomery began to wail. It had all along been
+utterly and most emphatically opposed to the location of the government
+there. It would ruin the trade, the morals and the reputation of the
+town. Dowagers had avowed their belief that the continuance of the
+Congress there for one year would render the city as perfect a Sodom as
+Washington--would demoralize the society beyond purification.
+
+Men of business had grumbled at being disturbed from their fixed
+routine of many years. But now that the incubus was to be removed,
+there was a strong pressure to prevent--and bitter denunciations
+of--the outrage!
+
+Leaders came out in the papers, advising against the practicability;
+scathing articles about perfidy sometimes appeared; and it was, on all
+hands, prophesied that the government would lose caste and dignity, and
+become a traveling caravan if the change were made. Where will the
+nations of Europe find it when they send their ministers to recognize
+the Confederate Government?--was the peroration of these eloquent
+advocates.
+
+Now, as there was no contract made or implied, in locating the
+provisional government at Montgomery, that it was to be the permanent
+Capital; or that the exigencies of the war might not necessitate a
+change to some point more available, this was at least unnecessary.
+True, the people had made sacrifices, and had inconvenienced
+themselves. But what they had done was for the country, and not for the
+Government; and had, besides, been done equally elsewhere. And the
+location, even temporarily, of the Government there had aided the town
+greatly. It had become the converging point of railroad and contract
+business for the Confederacy; and the depots and storehouses located
+there would be of course continued, throwing a vast amount of business
+activity and money into it. So, though the people might be somewhat
+morbid on the subject, their arguments against the change were, on the
+whole, if natural, not founded on fact.
+
+But, perfectly regardless of the thunders of the press and the
+growlings of the people, the preparations for removal and the change of
+base to Virginia went steadily on. By the 20th of May, everything had
+been completed--the President and Cabinet left Montgomery--the fact,
+that had for some time been a real one, was formally consummated; and
+Montgomery became again the Capital of Alabama.
+
+I had nothing to keep me in town longer, so I started for a leisurely
+trip to Richmond. But man proposes; and in this instance, the
+Quartermaster's Department disposed that travel was to be anything but
+practicable.
+
+Trains, crowded with troops from all directions, met at the junctions,
+and there had to lay over for hours, or days. Burden trains, with
+supplies for the army, munitions of war, or government property from
+Montgomery, blocked the road in all directions; and trains running "not
+on time" had to proceed much more carefully than ordinarily. In fact,
+there was not the amount of transportation at the disposal of the roads
+that the greatly enhanced demands required; and at every station nearer
+Richmond, the pressure of passengers and freight became greater.
+
+Through Georgia I bore the troubles of the transit like a philosopher;
+but under three detentions between Augusta and Columbia, of from nine
+to thirteen hours, patience and endurance both gave way.
+
+South Carolina had gone into the war with her eyes wider open than
+those of her sisters; and while she had yet time, was straining every
+nerve to utilize all her available resources and to make new ones. Her
+factories, tanneries and foundries were all in constant and active
+operation; she was making bountiful preparation for the future.
+
+Everywhere in the South was earnest endeavor and heartfelt enthusiasm
+for the cause; but I saw it nowhere directed into such practical and
+productive channels, thus early, as in South Carolina. Charleston,
+Pensacola and Virginia had drained her of younger and more active men;
+but the older ones and her vast resources of slave labor made up for
+the loss, and neither time nor energy seemed to be misapplied.
+
+After a rest, I found a freight train with a philanthropic conductor,
+and started for Kingsville. _Vae Victis!_
+
+I reached that station--what a misnomer!--in a driving mist and a very
+bad humor. Neither was a fine preparation for the news that a train had
+smashed seventeen miles above, tearing up the track and effectually
+blocking the road. The down train, with which we were to connect, could
+not come through; not a car was visible; no one knew when we could get
+off, and the engine we had left was just disappearing around a
+curve--Charlestonward.
+
+One hopeful individual ventured a mild suggestion that we should have
+to stay all night. He weighed a hundred and eighty pounds, at
+least--not a fraction less--so I remained passive; but ten pounds
+subtracted from his avoirdupois would have brought him a black eye.
+Stay all night! The idea was an ague!
+
+Kingsville was a splendid aggregation of one house and a long platform.
+The town--_i.e._, the house--had, even in palmy days, been remarkable
+on the road for great dirt, wretched breakfasts and worse whisky. You
+entered at one door, grabbed a biscuit and a piece of bacon and rushed
+out at the other; or you got an awful decoction of brown sugar and
+turpentine in a green tumbler. Constant travel and crowds of passing
+soldiers had not improved it in any particular. The very looks of the
+place were repugnant enough in the daytime, but
+
+    "Bold was he who hither came
+    At midnight--man or boy!"
+
+I felt that a night in the rain under the pines, with my bag for a
+pillow, would be endurable; but no mortal with a white skin could dare
+those bloated and odorous feather-beds, where other things--in the
+shape of mordants, vivacious, active and gigantic--besides
+
+    "Wicked dreams abuse the curtained sleeper."
+
+To mend matters, Gartrell's regiment of Georgians, eight hundred and
+fifty _strong_, and three other companies of Georgians from Pensacola,
+had been left here to meet a way-train, which failing, they bivouacked
+by the roadside. In all there were over eleven hundred tobacco-and-gin
+redolences, remarkably quiet for them; shooting at a mark, going
+through squad drill, drinking bad liquor by the canteen and swearing in
+a way that would have made the "Army in Flanders" sick with envy.
+
+In the latter amusement I joined internally; and it did me so much good
+that I bought the anti-administration newspaper of Charleston and,
+getting out of bullet range, put my back against a tree and tried to
+read. _Mercury_ was ever a blithe and sportive god, and his gambols on
+Mount Olympus were noted in days of yore; but the modern namesake--or
+else my present position--had soporific tendencies; and fear of the
+target shooters growing dimmer and dimmer, I lost myself in sleep.
+
+It was near sundown when I was awakened by the snort of a locomotive,
+and a freight train hove in sight. The drums rolled, the troops formed
+in line, each packing his household on his back as he trotted along;
+and, as the cars backed up, the men broke ranks and jumped aboard,
+filling every crack and corner, and seeming to pile on top of each
+other.
+
+A berth there was utterly impracticable to any man with any of his
+senses in active operation. That squirming, dense mass of humanity was
+more than the oldest traveler could stand, and I gave up my place in
+the rush. Luckily, there was an express car along, and I found the
+agent. He was very busy; and eloquence worthy of Gough, or Cicero, or
+Charles Sumner got no satisfaction. Desperation suggested a masonic
+signal, with the neck of a black bottle protruding from my bag. The man
+of parcels melted and invoked terrible torments on the immortal part of
+him if he didn't let me "g'long wi' the 'spress," as he styled that
+means of locomotion.
+
+The accommodation was not princely--six feet by ten, cumbered with
+packages of all shapes and sizes and strongly flavored with bacon and
+pipe. Yet, "not for gold or precious stones" would I have exchanged
+that redolent corner. The agent waxed more and more polite as the
+bottle emptied, regretted the want of room, regaled himself with
+frequent "nips," and me with anecdotes of a professional nature.
+
+From him was learned that he was with the train that had carried my old
+friends, the Zouaves, to their fresh fields of glory in Virginia. They
+retained a lively recollection of their lesson at Montgomery, and had
+kept rather quiet till reaching Columbia. There the devil again got
+unchained among them, and they broke out in a style to make up for
+their enforced good behavior.
+
+"Sich a shooting of cattle and poultry, sich a yelling and singing of
+ther darned frenchy stuff--sich a rolling of drums and a damning of
+officers, I ain't hear yit"--said the agent. "And they _does_ ride
+more on the outside of the cars than the inside, anyhow."
+
+Beyond Weldon a knot were balancing themselves on the connecting beams
+of the box-cars. Warned by their officers, they laughed; begged by the
+conductors, they swore. Suddenly there was a jolt, the headway of the
+cars jammed them together, and three red-legged gentlemen were mashed
+between them--flat as Ravel in the pantomime.
+
+"And I'm jest a-thinkin'," was his peroration, "ef this yere reegement
+don't stop a-fightin' together, being shot by the Georgians and beat by
+their officers--not to mention a jammin' up on railroads--they're gwine
+to do darned leetle sarvice a-fightin' of Yanks!"
+
+After this period the agent talked, first to himself and then to the
+black bottle; while I, seated on a box of cartridges, lit my pipe and
+went into a reverie as to the treatment the surgeons would use in the
+pneumonia sure to result from the leaks in the car.
+
+In the midst of an active course of turpentine and stimulants, I was
+brought to myself by a jolt and dead halt in mid-road. The engine had
+blown off a nut, and here we were, dead lame, six miles from a station
+and no chance of getting on.
+
+My Express friend advised very quietly to "quit this and walk onter
+Florence."
+
+"'Taint but a small tramp after all," he said. "And ye'll jest catch
+the A.M. up train and miss the sojers. Jest hand this yere to the A. &
+Co.'s agent, and he'll help yer ef she's crowded. Here's luck!" and he
+took a long pull at the bottle and handed it back--rather
+regretfully--with a dingy note on the back of an Express receipt.
+
+For the benefit of literature in ages yet unborn, I give a careful
+transcription of this document:
+
+    _"Deer bil this gentilman Is a verry peerticular frend of
+    mine--also My brother-en-law. And you must give him sum Help ef he
+    needs any cos Our engen she's run of the track And I won't be long
+    afore to morrer._
+
+    _"Yours trewly,_
+
+    "GRIMES."
+
+Thus armed, I shouldered my bag and started on my tramp over the wet
+and slippery track, reaching Florence at gray dawn. As I came in sight,
+there stood the train, the engines cold and fires unlit. I had full
+time, but my good luck--the first since I started--put me in a glow,
+and I stepped out in a juvenile pace that would have done credit to
+"the Boy" in training days. As I came nearer, my mercury went rapidly
+down to zero. Every car was jammed, aisles packed and box-cars crowded
+even on top. The doorways and platforms were filled with long rows of
+gray blankets that smelt suggestively human! Crowds of detained
+passengers and three companies of the "Crescent Guard" had taken their
+places at midnight, and slept with a peacefulness perfectly
+aggravating. As I walked ruefully by the windows, there was no hope!
+Every seat was filled, and every passenger slept the sleep of the just;
+and their mixed and volleyed snoring came through,
+
+    "Keeping time, time, time,
+    In a sort of Runic rhyme."
+
+There was no sort of use. I'd have to try the Express, and deep was my
+chuckle as I reread my friend Grimes' remarkable production. It would
+be an oasis in this desert--that Express car; but lo! when I went to
+look for it there was none on the train!
+
+Dead beat I sat on the platform and awaited day. When a fireman began
+operations on the engine, I meekly queried where the Express was.
+
+"Be n't none," was the surly rejoinder.
+
+I was wet and tired and generally bewildered. Was it a wonder that I
+then and there swore at that fireman, as only meek and long-suffering
+men, when aroused, can swear? The volley was effective, however, and he
+very politely told me the agent would "be roun'" before the train
+started. Presently he pointed out the desired individual, to whom I
+hastened to hand my note. Now the terrible denunciations my former
+friend had made on his own soul were as nothing to what the present
+representative of Adams & Co. called down upon his own and everybody
+else's immortal function.
+
+"Well, I hope to be eternally ---- ---- by ----! But it ain't no use!
+---- ---- my ---- soul, ef yer shan't ride somehow!" remarked this
+profane expressman. "Yer be Hector Grimes' brother, and by ----! go
+yer shell! Yer married his sister Cynthy--the one as squints? Why
+---- ---- me! I knowed her when she wasn't knee high--and yer done
+---- ---- well, by ----! Here, Potty!" and he addressed a greasy man
+just mounting the mail car--"Here be Grimes' brother, as _must_ git to
+Weldon, by ---- ----! So hist him along, will yer?"
+
+"O.K. Jump in, Mr. Grimes," agreed the mail agent; and by this time I
+was so wet and disgusted I didn't care who I was. So in I went, playing
+_Grimes_ "for this night only."
+
+"Here's luck, Potty! may ---- ---- me, but I'm glad I met yer, Grimes,"
+remarked my profane friend, taking a long pull at the bottle I handed
+him in my gratitude. "Here's to your wife, Grimes!" and the cars
+starting just then, "deer bil" took another pull and, with great
+absence of mind, put the bottle in his pocket and waved us adieu.
+
+The Mail car, like the Express, was a box ten feet by six--one-half the
+space filled with counter and pigeon-holes, and the other half with
+mail-bags. Into the remainder were crammed the agent--specific gravity
+equal to that of two hundred and ninety pounds of feathers--a friend of
+his and myself. The friend I soon found was what is known as "a good
+traveling companion;" _i.e._, a man who keeps himself primed with broad
+stories and bad whisky, and who doesn't object to a song in which the
+air always runs away with the harmony. After we started I tried to
+sleep. It was no use. Lying on one mail-bag with another for a pillow,
+that is liable to be jerked out at any station to the near dislocation
+of your neck, with a funny man sitting nearly on you, are not sedatives.
+My bottle was gone, so I drank gin out of the funny man's. I hate
+gin--but that night I hated everything and tried the _similia similibus_
+rule.
+
+We missed connection at Weldon. Did anybody ever make connection there?
+We were four hours late, and with much reason had, therefore, to wait
+five hours more. If Kingsville is cheap and nasty, Weldon is dear and
+nastier. Such a supper! It was inedible even to a man who had tasted
+nothing but whisky, gin and peanuts for forty-eight hours. Then the
+landlord--whose hospitality was only equaled by his patriotism--refused
+to open his house at train time. We must either stay all night, or not
+at all--for the house would shut at ten o'clock--just after supper. So
+a deputation of the Crescents and I waited on him, and after a plain
+talk concluded to "cuss and quit." So we clambered into some platform
+cars that were to go with the train, and, after a sumptuous supper of
+dried-apple pies and peanuts, slept the sleep of the weary.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+"ON TO RICHMOND!"
+
+
+Of course, Petersburg was reached two hours after the train for
+Richmond had left, but in full time to get half a cold breakfast, at
+double price. For, about the first development one noted in the South
+was the growth of an inordinate greed in the class who had anything to
+sell, or to do, that was supposed to be indispensable. The small hotels
+and taverns along the railways peculiarly evidenced this; for, demands
+of passengers must be supplied, and this was the moment for harvest
+full and fat. Disgust, wetting, gin and detention had made me feel
+wolfish; but I wanted none of _that_ breakfast. Still, I gave the
+baldheaded man, with nose like a vulture--collecting nimbly the dollars
+of the soldiers--a very decided expression of my opinion. He seemed
+deeply pained thereat; but no one ever mentioned that he had put down
+the price.
+
+At the depot was Frank C., an old chum of Washington "germans," in the
+new dress of first sergeant of a Georgia battery. He was rushing a
+carload of company property to Richmond, and was as eager as I and the
+Crescents to get to that goal. So, between us, the railroad
+superintendent was badgered into an extra engine; and, mounting Frank's
+triumphal car, we bumped away from fellow travelers, wandering
+dolefully through the mud in vain attempt at time-killing until the
+evening train. That freight-car--piled as it was with ammunition,
+wheels and harness--was a Godsend, after the past three days. Cicero,
+Frank's ancient and black Man Friday, dispensed hot coffee and huge
+hunks of bread and ham; and a violin and two good voices among the
+Crescents made the time skim along far faster than since starting.
+
+"How is it you haven't your commission?" one of the Creoles asked the
+Georgian. "When we parted at Montgomery it was promised you."
+
+"Pledges are not commissions, though," was the careless reply. "I got
+tired of waiting the Secretary's caprices, when there was real work to
+be done; so one day I went to the War Department and demanded either my
+sheepskin, or a positive refusal. I got only more promises; so I told
+the Sec. I needed no charity from the government, but would present it
+with a company! Then, to be as good as my word, I sold some cotton and
+some stock, equipped this company and--_voila tout!_"
+
+"But you are not commanding your company?"
+
+"Couldn't do it, you see. Wouldn't let the boys elect me an officer and
+have the Sec. think I had _bought_ my commission! But, old fellow, I'll
+win it before the month is out; and, if God spares me, mother shall
+call her boy Colonel Frank, before Christmas!"
+
+Poor Frank! Before the hoped-for day his bones were bleaching in front
+of Fort Magruder. One morning the retreat from Yorktown--a pitiful
+roadside skirmish--a bullet in his brain--and the tramp of McClellan's
+advancing hosts packed the fresh sods over his grave, _herois monumentum_!
+He was one of many, but no truer heart or readier hand were stilled in
+all the war.
+
+Passing out of the cut through the high bluff, just across the "Jeems"
+river bridge, Richmond burst beautifully into view; spreading
+panorama-like over her swelling hills, with the evening sun gilding
+simple houses and towering spires alike into a glory. The city follows
+the curve of the river, seated on amphitheatric hills, retreating from
+its banks; fringes of dense woods shading their slopes, or making blue
+background against the sky. No city of the South has grander or more
+picturesque approach; and now--as the slant rays of the sun kissed her
+a loving good-night--nothing in the view hinted of war to come, but all
+of holy peace.
+
+Just here the James narrows its bed between high banks, and for some
+three miles--from Hollywood cemetery down to "Rockett's" landing--the
+shallow current dashes over its rocky bed with the force and chafe of a
+mountain torrent; now swirling, churned into foamy rapids, again
+gliding swiftly smooth around larger patches of islands that dot its
+surface. On the right hand hills, behind us, rises the suburb village
+of Manchester, already of considerable importance as a milling town;
+and the whole _coup d'oeil_--from the shining heights of Chimborazo to
+the green slopes of the city of the silent, the grim, gray old capitol
+as a centerpiece--makes a Claud landscape that admits no thought of the
+bloody future!
+
+The railroad bridge--then a frail, giddy structure, wide enough for a
+track and footway--spans near a mile across the boiling current. From
+the car-platform, the treetops far below and the rugged, foam-crowned
+rocks look inhospitably distant. I have whirled round the high trestles
+on the Baltimore & Ohio when the work swayed and rattled under the
+heavy train, threatening each moment to hurl us down the precipitous
+mountain into the black, rocky bed of the Cheat, hundreds of feet
+below; have dashed at speed round steep grades hewn in the solid rock,
+where the sharp, jagged peaks rose a thousand feet beneath us; and I
+have raced in pitchy nights on the western rivers in tinder-box boats,
+that seemed shaking to pieces away from their red-hot furnaces; but I
+do not recall any piece of travel that gave the same sense of the
+instability of railroad affairs as that James river bridge.
+
+The city was thoroughly jammed--its ordinary population of forty
+thousand swelled to three times that number by the sudden pressure. Of
+course, all the Government, with its thousand employes, had come on;
+and in addition, all the loose population along the railroad over which
+it had passed seemed to have clung to and been rolled into Richmond
+with it. Not only did this mania seize the wealthier and well-to-do
+classes, but the queerest costumes of the inland corners of Georgia and
+Tennessee disported themselves with perfect composure at hotels and on
+the streets. Besides, from ten to fifteen thousand troops were always
+collected, as a general rendezvous, before assignment to one of the
+important points--Norfolk, the Peninsula, or the Potomac lines.
+Although these were in camp out of town, their officers and men
+thronged the streets from daylight to dark, on business or pleasure
+bent; and the variety of uniforms--from the butternut of the Georgia
+private to the three stars of the flash colonel--broke the monotony of
+the streets pleasingly to the eye.
+
+Hotel accommodations in Richmond were always small and plain, and now
+they were all overflowing. The Spotswood, Exchange and American held
+beds at a high premium in the parlors, halls and even on the
+billiard-tables. All the lesser houses were equally packed, and crowds
+of guests stood hungrily round the dining-room doors at meal-times,
+watching and scrambling for vacated seats. It was a clear case of
+"devil take the hindmost," for their _cuisine_ decreased in quantity
+and quality in exact ratio to augmentation of their custom. The
+Richmond hotels, always mediocre, were now wretched. Such a thing as a
+clean room, a hot steak, or an answered bell were not to be bought by
+flagrant bribery. I would fain believe that all concerned did their
+best; but rapid influx absolutely overwhelmed them; and resources of
+the neighboring country--ample to support one-third the numbers now
+collected--were quickly exhausted under suddenly tripled demand. No
+transportation for private supplies was available in the overtaxed
+condition of the railroads; so the strangers, perforce, had to "grin
+and bear it," dry soever as the grin might be. Private boarding-houses
+sprang up like mushrooms on every block; bereaved relicts and ambitious
+spinsterhood equally clutching the chance to turn an honest penny. And
+naturally, ordinary trials of boarding-house life were aggravated by
+circumstance. Discomfort of the hotels was great enough; but,
+desiccated into the boarding-house can, it became simply unendurable.
+In this strait many private families were induced to open their doors
+to the better class of strangers; and gradually the whole dense
+population settled down, wedged into comparative quiet. Happily, my
+lines fell in these pleasanter places; and, whatever the unavoidable
+trials, it were base ingratitude in an experimental pilgrim among the
+mail-bags to indite a new Jeremiad thereon.
+
+Suites of rooms had been reserved at the Spotswood hotel for the
+President and some of his Cabinet; so that house naturally became
+headquarters. Mr. Davis' office, the "Cabinet-room" with the State and
+Treasury Departments were located in the custom-house; and the other
+bureaux of the Government were relegated to the "Mechanics' Institute,"
+an ungainly pile of bricks, formerly used as library and lecture-rooms.
+
+The State of Virginia, though not at all on pleasure bent in inviting
+the Government to her capital, had yet been of frugal enough mind not
+to commence preparations in advance of acceptance; and the hejira
+followed so swiftly upon it that we plumped down into their very midst.
+Miss Bremer--who declared Alexandria entirely finished because she
+never heard the sound of a hammer--would have been more than amused at
+Richmond. The great halls of the Institute were cutting up into
+offices, with deafening clatter, day and night; and one of the Cabinet
+secretaries--who did not exhibit, if indeed he possessed, that
+aspiration ascribed to the devil when ill--swore himself almost to a
+shadow.
+
+Both these public offices faced upon Capitol Square; a large, iron-fenced
+space, beautifully undulating and with walks winding under grand old
+trees. On the central hill stood the old State Capitol, picturesque
+from the river, but grimly dirty on close inspection. It is a plain,
+quadrangular construction, with Grecian pediment and columns on its
+south front and broad flights of steps leading to its side porticoes.
+Below were the halls of the legislature, now turned over to the
+Confederate States Congress; and in the small rotunda connecting them
+stood Houdon's celebrated statue of Washington--a simple but majestic
+figure in marble, ordered by Dr. Franklin from the French sculptor in
+1785--of which Virginians are justly proud. In the cool, vaulted
+basement were the State officials; and above the halls the offices of
+the governor and the State library. That collection, while lacking many
+modern works, held some rare and valuable editions. It was presided
+over by the gentlest and most courteous _litterateur_ of the South.
+Many a bedeviled and ambitious public man may still recall his quiet,
+modest aid, in strong contrast to the _brusquerie_ and "insolence of
+office," too much the general rule; and his touching, heart-born poems
+were familiar at every southern hearth and camp-fireside. Soon after,
+the familiar voice of friendship was dulled to him--_exul patriae_--by
+the boom of the broad Atlantic; and now his bones rest far away from
+those alcoves and their classic dust.
+
+John R. Thompson, the editor of the famous "Southern Literary
+Messenger," went to London to edit "The Index," established in the
+never-relinquished hope of influencing European opinion. On reaching
+New York, when the cause he loved was lost, the staunch friendship of
+Richard Henry Stoddard and the appreciation of William Cullen Bryant
+found him congenial work on "The Post." But the sensitive spirit was
+broken; a few brief years saw the end, and only a green memory is left
+to those who loved, even without knowing, the purest southern poet.
+
+From the roof of the Capitol is had the finest view of Richmond, the
+surrounding country lying like a map for a radius of twenty miles. Only
+from this bird's-eye view can a perfect idea be gained of the elevation
+of the city, perched above a rolling country--its stretches of
+meadowland below cut by the valley of the James; the river stealing in
+sluggish, molten silver through it, or heaving up inland into bold,
+tree-bearded hills, high enough to take the light from the clouds on
+their tops, as a halo. Far northward alternate swells of light and
+depressions of shadow among the hills; the far-off horizon making a
+girdle of purple light, blended into the blue of undefined woods. On
+clear days, a splendid ozone fills the air at that high perch, the
+picture having, as far as the eye can travel, stereoscopic clearness.
+
+Immediately beneath lies the Square; its winding walks, rare old trees
+and rich sweep of sod filled with children, so full of enjoyment that
+one is half-minded to drop down and roll over the grass with them. On
+the central walk, midway between the Capitol and St. Paul's church,
+stands Crawford's equestrian Washington in bronze, resting upon a
+circular base and pedestal of plain granite, in which are bases for
+statues of the mighty Virginians of the past. Only the three southern
+ones were now occupied; but those figures--Jefferson, Mason and
+Henry--were accepted as surpassing in merit the central work. The
+Washington is imposing in size and position, but its art is open to
+criticism. The horse is exaggeration of pose and muscle; being equally
+strained, though not rampant, as that inopportune charger on which
+Clark Mills perched General Jackson, at the national Capital. Nor is
+this "first in peace" by any means "the first" on horseback; the figure
+being theatric rather than dignified, and the extended arm more
+gymnastic than statuesque.
+
+An irate senator once told the august body he addressed that it was a
+warning to them--"pointing straight to the penitentiary!" So, as a
+whole, the group, if not thoroughly classic, may be admirably useful.
+
+From Capitol Square, open, wide streets--neatly built up and meeting
+each other at right angles--stretch away on all sides; an occasional
+spire or dome, and frequent houses larger than the rest, breaking the
+monotony. Below, toward the river, lie the basins, docks and rows of
+warehouses; and further still is the landing, "Rockett's," the head of
+river navigation, above which no vessels of any size can come. Just
+under the Capitol--to the East--stands the governor's house, a plain,
+substantial mansion of the olden time, embosomed in trees and
+flower-beds. Further off, in the same line, rise the red and ragged
+slopes of Church Hill. It takes its name from the old church in which
+Patrick Henry made his celebrated speech--a structure still in pretty
+good preservation. And still further away--opposite the vanishing point
+of the water view--are seen the green tops of Chimborazo Heights and
+Howard's Grove--hospital sites, whose names have been graven upon the
+hearts of all southern people by the mordant of sorrow!
+
+Just across the river, to the South, the white and scattered village of
+Manchester is prettily relieved against the green slopes on which it
+sits. There the bridge cuts the shining chafe of the river like a black
+wire; and just under it, the wind sighs softly in the treetops of Belle
+Isle, afterward to become so famous in the newspaper annals of the
+North, as a prison for the Union soldiers captured in the long struggle
+for the city.
+
+Far to the west, higher shafts of Hollywood Cemetery gleam among the
+trees; and the rapids, dancing down in the sunlight, break away into a
+broader sheet of foam around its point. Except, perhaps, "Bonnie
+Venture" (_Buona Ventura_), at Savannah, there is no site for a
+cemetery in the South, naturally so picturesque and at the same time
+solemn, as this. Rising from comparatively level ground in the rear, it
+swells and undulates in a series of gentle hills to the river, that
+embraces it on three sides. Rows of magnificent old trees in many
+places arch quite across the walk--giving, even at midday, a
+half-twilight--and the sigh of the river breeze in their tops, mingling
+with the constant roar of the rapids, seems to sing a _Te Deum_ for
+the dead. The graves are simple and unpretending--only an occasional
+column of any prominence rearing itself above the humbler surroundings.
+
+On a hill--just behind the point where the river curves round the
+extreme point--rest the ashes of Monroe, enclosed in a large and ornate
+mausoleum, where they were laid when escorted south by the New York
+Seventh Regiment. That escort was treated with all the generous
+hospitality Virginia can so well use; and numerous and deep were the
+oaths of amity between the citizen-soldiers. Though the Seventh were
+not notoriously deadly, in the war that followed, only the shortest of
+memories--or, indeed, the most glowing of patriotism--could have erased
+the brother-love, then and there bumpered down!
+
+Under the hills of the cemetery--the dirty, dull canal creeping between
+them--stand the buildings, dam and powerful pumps of the water service;
+ordinarily more than adequate for all uses. Usually, the water was pure
+and clear; but when heavy rains washed the river lands, the "noble
+Jeems" rushed by with an unsavory and dingy current, that might have
+shamed the yellow Tiber and rivaled the Nile itself. Sometimes the
+weary and worn patriot took his whisky and mud, thick enough to demand
+a fork; and for days
+
+    "The water is muddy and dank
+    As ever a company pumped."
+
+The outskirts of Richmond are belted by bold crests, near enough,
+together to form a chain of natural forts. These were now fortifying;
+the son of wealth, the son of Erin and the son of Ham laboring in
+perspiration and in peace side by side. Later these forts did good
+turn, during cavalry raids, when the city was uncovered and the
+garrison but nominal.
+
+Gamble's hill, a pretty but steep slope, cuts the river west of the
+bridge. Rising above its curves, from the Capitol view-point, are the
+slate-roofed Tredegar Works; their tall chimneys puffing endless black
+smoke against the sunshine, which reflects it, a livid green, upon the
+white foam of the rapids. So potent a factor in the aggressive power of
+the Confederacy was this foundry that it overtopped the regular
+government agencies. When the war began, this was the only rolling-mill
+of great capacity, of which the South could boast; the only one,
+indeed, capable of casting heavy guns. Almost the first decisive act of
+Virginia was to prevent, by seizure, the delivery to United States
+officers of some guns cast for them by the Tredegar Works; and, from
+that day, there were no more earnest and energetic workers for the
+cause of southern independence than the firm of Jos. R. Anderson & Co.
+It was said, at this time, that the firm was in financial straits. But
+it thrived so well on government patronage--spite of sundry boards to
+consider if army and navy work was not paid for at ruinously low
+rates--that it greatly increased in size; added to its utility by
+importations of costly machinery, through the blockade; stood loss of
+one-third of its buildings, by fire; used a ship of its own for
+importation; and, at the close of the struggle, was in better condition
+than at the commencement. The senior partner was, for a time, in the
+field at head of his brigade; but affairs were so well managed, in the
+interval, by the Messrs. Tanner--father and son, who were partners with
+General Anderson--that his absence was not appreciable in the work.
+
+It was at the Tredegar Works that the famous "Brooke gun"--a rifled
+7-inch--was cast, tested and perfected. Here the plates for the
+iron-clads, in almost all southern waters, were rolled or made ready
+for use. Here heavy ordnance for the forts was cast, together with
+shells and shot; and here the torpedoes--sometimes so effective, and
+usually so useless--were contrived and made. Indeed, the Tredegar Works
+so greatly aided the Confederacy, that the lengthening of the war may
+be, in large measure, attributed to their capacity, and to the able
+zeal with which they were managed.
+
+So great and effective an agent could not fail to receive, from the
+Richmond government, every aid in obtainance of supplies, labor and
+transportation. "The Works" had mines, mills and pork-packeries in
+various sections of the South; thus obtaining coal and metals, as well
+as food--at reduced rates, within reach of their wages--for an army of
+employes. So great was the necessary number of these--whites, skilled,
+in labor--that even closest conscription left the junior of the firm a
+full battalion of infantry. This, drilled and equipped from his own
+shops, Major Tanner led in person, when raids or other straits made
+their soldiering paramount to other occupation. And--even when greatest
+scarcity of provisions came--the agents of "the Works" proceeded with
+those of the commissary of the Confederacy, _pari passu_.
+
+An odd incident, coming to mind just here, will point the general
+estimate of the importance of the Tredegar Works. A special train was
+crossing the bridge, en route for Petersburg, at a time when
+transportation was rare. A huge negro, blacker than the soot upon his
+face, sat placidly on the platform of the rear car.
+
+"What are you doing here?" was asked by the officer in charge.
+
+"Rid'n' t' Petesbug," was the placid reply.
+
+"Have you paid your fare?"
+
+"Don' got nun t' pay, boss. Rides onner pass, I does!"
+
+"Work for the government?"--this rather impatiently.
+
+Ebo rolled his eyes, with expression of deep disgust, as he responded,
+grandly:
+
+"No--_sah!_ Fur t'uther consarn!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+SETTLING TO THE REAL WORK.
+
+
+Notwithstanding the haste of removal from Montgomery, the vast amount
+of work to be reduced to regular order, and the apparent confusion of
+the executive departments, affairs rapidly shaped themselves into
+working form soon after the arrival in Richmond.
+
+That city, as the terminus of railway travel from the South and West,
+was naturally the rendezvous for all troops coming from the various
+quarters of the Confederacy; and, at the date of the change of
+government, some fifteen thousand were already collected in the camps
+about the town. These comprised levies from every section of the ten
+states that had adhered to the southern government--regulars,
+volunteers and militia and of all arms.
+
+South Carolina and Louisiana had immediately on their secession
+organized regular armies, on a more perfect and permanent basis than
+their sister states, and had garrisoned their forts--and points then
+supposed most vulnerable--with them. The call of the Confederate
+Government for more troops had not interfered with these organizations,
+but had brought into the field new material in the shape of volunteer
+regiments and battalions of cavalry, artillery and infantry.
+
+While, as a general thing, the rank and file of the state regulars were
+composed of the laboring classes, foreigners and the usual useless and
+floating portion of their populations, officered by gentlemen of better
+position and education, appointed by the governors, the volunteers had
+in their ranks men of all conditions, from the humblest laborer to the
+scholar, the banker and the priest.
+
+They were commanded by men they themselves elected, as being the most
+competent and acceptable, either by reason of greater ability, or
+military education.
+
+Upon the action of her convention, Virginia was found to have been in
+nowise behind the other states in her preparations. In fact, she had
+anticipated its somewhat tardy movement and had marshaled into order an
+array of her stout yeomanry that was in itself no contemptible army.
+When she joined the Confederacy, she offered to its acceptance over
+twenty full regiments, and parts of others sufficient to make eight or
+ten more.
+
+Almost all the officers of the United States Army and Navy, from her
+borders, had promptly resigned and tendered their swords and services
+to her governor. Robert E. Lee--with his great family influence and
+connection--Joseph E. Johnston, Magruder, Stuart, and a host of others
+whose names shine bright in the annals of war, had even anticipated the
+formal act of secession; and its passage found them busily working,
+with any rank and in any way that could best conduce to the good of the
+state. With their aid, Virginia, too, had organized a regular army;
+and, feeling the necessity for prompt action to be imminent, had armed,
+drilled and equipped it to the limit of her straightened means; and had
+already begun to put her frontiers into a state of defense.
+
+General Lee was made commander-in-chief, and the flower of Virginia,
+from the old army, were made generals and subordinate officers under
+him.
+
+The gentlemen of the Old Dominion were not slow to show a good example
+to the lower classes. Crack companies that had been unused to any more
+dreadful war than the blank cartridge of a holiday pageant, went in to
+a man; whole battalions were formed from which no drop of blood might
+be spilled, that did not flow straight from one of the known and
+honored of her history.
+
+Who has not heard of the First Virginia? a name that brings back the
+grand old days of chivalric devotion and doughty deed! Who in the South
+does not honor it? though scarce a dozen of the noble hearts that first
+flocked to its proud banner can now gather round the grim and shattered
+old lion, who bought with many a wound in front the right to lead it to
+the fray. And "Co. F," in whose ranks were the brilliant advocate, the
+skillful surgeon, the man of letters and the smooth-faced pet of the
+Mayday gathering--all that made the pride, the boast and the love of,
+Richmond!
+
+The beacon had been lighted on the mountain top, and had gleamed by her
+river sides! The sturdy hunter from the West, and the dashing horseman
+from the East; the merchant at his till, and the farmer, with hard hand
+on the plough-handle--all heard the voice of the bugle and answered
+with a shout!
+
+Men of all classes--from the highest-born and richest to the humblest
+and poorest--from the grandsire with his flint-lock to the sunny-haired
+stripling scarcely in his teens--with one accord
+
+                          "----Came forth at the call
+    With the rush of their rivers when tempests appall,
+      And the torrents their sources unseal!"
+
+Thus, when the Government first felt that Virginia was to be the
+battle-ground and decided to lash its fortunes to hers amid the black
+billows that were surging around it, an army was already in the field;
+partially armed, already somewhat proficient in drill and learning, by
+the discipline of camp and bivouac, to prepare for the stern realities
+of war.
+
+In many instances, the posting of their regulars by the respective
+state governments had been considered so judicious, that the War
+Department made no change; as, for instance, in garrisoning the forts
+in Charleston harbor by the South Carolina Regular Artillery, and those
+at New Orleans by the 1st and 2d Louisiana Regulars. But after the
+necessary garrison had been left in the most exposed points, every
+available man was ordered to Virginia. Here the work of organization
+went on with a smoothness and regularity scarcely to have been looked
+for. Occasionally a hitch occurred that threatened to get the threads
+of preparation into an ugly knot; but it was ever unraveled without the
+Gordian treatment.
+
+Fresh troops from every quarter were collecting rapidly. First came
+Gregg's regiment of South Carolinians; and they were met with open arms
+by the Virginians, soldiery and citizens. They received the first gush of
+the new brotherhood of defiance and of danger; and their camp--constantly
+visited by the ladies and even children of Richmond--had more the air of
+a picnic than of a bivouac. Many of the men and most of the officers in
+the First Carolina bore
+
+                                          "Names,
+    Familiar in their mouths as household words."
+
+They were descendants from that other revolution, the political
+celebrities, or the watering-place beaux; and the houses of Richmond
+were opened to them at once. Dinners, parties and rides were
+improvised, and the first comers were voted, especially by the ladies,
+a "joy forever." Gradually, as regiment after regiment marched in and
+the city filled to overflowing with the still welcome strangers, the
+novelty wore off; and, though the feeling of fellowship and kindliness
+was just as strong, the citizens found that their hearts were larger
+than their houses, and that even Virginia hospitality must have a
+limit. Varied, indeed, were the forms one met on every street and road
+about Richmond. Here the long-haired Texan, sitting his horse like a
+centaur, with high-peaked saddle and jingling spurs, dashed by--a
+pictured _guacho_. There the western mountaineer, with bearskin shirt,
+fringed leggings, and the long, deadly rifle, carried one back to the
+days of Boone and the "dark and bloody ground." The dirty gray and
+tarnished silver of the muddy-complexioned Carolinian; the dingy
+butternut of the lank, muscular Georgian, with its green trimming and
+full skirts; and the Alabamians from the coast, nearly all in blue of a
+cleaner hue and neater cut; while the Louisiana troops were, as a
+general thing, better equipped and more regularly uniformed than any
+others in the motley throng.
+
+But the most remarked dress that flashed among these varied uniforms
+was the blue-and-orange of the Maryland Zouaves. At the time of the
+riot of the 19th of April, there had just been perfected a splendid
+organization of the younger gentlemen of the Monumental City--a
+veritable _corps d'elite_--known as the "Maryland Guard." It was as
+remarkable for excellence of discipline and perfection of equipment, as
+for containing the very best blood of the city; and, though taking no
+part--as an organization--in the riot, it was immediately afterward put
+by its officers at the disposal of the Baltimore authorities.
+
+When it became apparent that Maryland could take no active part in the
+struggle, many members of this corps promptly left the luxuries of
+their homes, their early associations, and even the very means of
+livelihood, to go south and battle for the principles they held. They
+unhesitatingly expatriated themselves, and gave up all they held
+dear--except honor--to range themselves under that flag for which they
+had declared. Many of them had been born and reared southerners--many
+had only the chivalric intention to fight for the cause they felt
+right. Their sympathies all went with the South, and their blood leaped
+to help her in this her hour of sore trial.
+
+Was it strange that the generous Virginian should have opened his arms
+to give these men the embrace of fellowship and brotherhood; that they
+should have been honored guests at every hospitable board; that bright
+eyes should have glanced brighter at a glimpse of the orange and blue?
+
+Much has been said and much written of the Marylanders in the South; of
+their demoralized condition, their speculative tendencies, and their
+wild dissipations. Not a few of them came for plunder--some left their
+country for their country's good:--but in the veins of such only a
+muddy current ran! Where the Maryland gentleman was found on the
+stranger soil, it was musket in hand, battling for it; and so well was
+his _devoir_ done, that he rapidly changed the bayonet for the sword;
+and more than one general, whose name will live in the South, came from
+their number.
+
+Almost all the soldiery wore the broad, soft _slouch_, in place of
+the more military, but less comfortable, _kepi_. There was something
+about it characteristic of the race--it seemed to suit exactly the
+free, careless port of the men--and it was equally useful as a
+protection from the fierce June sun, or beating rain, and as a
+night-cap.
+
+Arms, too, were as varied as the uniforms. Many whole regiments were
+armed with the Belgian or Springfield musket--light, and carrying a
+large ball an immense distance; others had only the Mississippi rifle;
+while some again sported a mixture of rifles, muskets and shot-guns.
+The greatest variety was in the cavalry--if such it could be called.
+Men accustomed from infancy to the saddle and the rifle had seized
+whatever weapon they were possessed of; and more at home on horseback
+than on foot, they were, no doubt, ugly enemies in a bush fight, or an
+ambuscade. Many whole companies had no sabers but those their officers
+carried, and the very individuality and self-reliance of the men acted
+as an invincible opponent to drill and discipline. Mounted on horses of
+all sizes and colors; equipped with all varieties of trappings; and
+carrying slung at their backs every known game-killer--from rifle to
+duck gun--they would have been a strange picture to the European
+officer to which their splendid horsemanship and lithe, agile figures
+could have added no varnish to make him believe them cavalry.
+
+But every man you met, mounted or footman, carried in his belt the
+broad, straight, double-edged bowie-knife, useful alike for war-like,
+or culinary purposes; and few, indeed, did not balance it with the
+revolver. In some of the crack corps this was strictly prohibited; for
+the difficulty has ever been in armies to teach the men to use
+efficiently the _one_ weapon belonging to them; and that there is
+no safety in a multitude.
+
+Long before the first scene of the bloody drama was done--and stern
+realities had taken the gilt from the pomp and circumstance of war--the
+actors had cast aside all the "properties" they did not absolutely
+need. The exhaustion of their first few battles, or a couple of
+Jackson's marches, taught them that in this race for life and limb,
+there was no need to carry extra weight. I constantly had brought to
+mind the anecdote of the Crimean Zouaves, about to charge a redan, who
+answered their officer's query as to the number of cartridges they had
+by tapping their saber bayonets.
+
+The arriving regiments were inspected, mustered into the Confederate
+service and drilled by competent officers; vacancies were filled; and
+such wanting equipments, as could be supplied, bestowed upon them. They
+were then brigaded, and after time enough to become accustomed to their
+commanders and to each other, were forwarded to points where, at the
+moment, troops appeared most needed.
+
+The three points in Virginia, considered as vital, were the Peninsula,
+formed by the James and York rivers, Norfolk, and the open country
+around and about Orange Courthouse to the Potomac. Fortress Monroe
+impregnable to assault, by the land side, and so easily provisioned and
+garrisoned by sea, was looked upon as the most dangerous neighbor. From
+its walls, the legions of the North might, at any moment, swoop down
+upon the unprotected country around it and establish a foothold, from
+which it would be hard to dislodge them, as at Newport's News. Its
+propinquity to Norfolk, together with the vast preponderance of the
+United States in naval power, made an attack upon that place the most
+reasonable supposition. The State of Virginia had already put it in as
+good defense as the time permitted. General Huger, a distinguished
+officer of Ordnance from the U.S. service, had at once been sent there;
+and his preparations had been such that an unfinished earth work, at
+Sewell's Point, stood for four hours, on the 19th of May, the
+bombardment of the U.S. ships "Minnesota" and "Monticello."
+
+The Confederate War Department felt such confidence in the engineering
+and administrative ability of General Huger, that it endorsed the
+action of Virginia by giving him a brigadier's commission and
+instructions to put Norfolk and the avenues of its approach in complete
+state of defense. A sufficient garrison of picked troops--among them
+the Third Alabama and some of the best Richmond companies--was given
+him; and Norfolk was soon declared securely fortified.
+
+The Peninsula was even more exposed to land attack from Fortress
+Monroe; and General John B. Magruder had been sent there with a part of
+the Virginia army, with headquarters at Yorktown. General Magruder had
+long been a well-known officer of the U.S. Army, where his personal
+popularity and a certain magnificence of manner had gained him the
+sobriquet of "Prince John." He possessed energy and dash in no mean
+degree; and on arriving at his sphere of duty, strained every nerve to
+put the Peninsula in a state of defense. His work, too, was approved by
+the Confederate War Department; the commission of brigadier conferred
+upon him, and re-enforcements--sufficient in its judgment, though not
+in his--were sent at once to his command.
+
+While Fortress Monroe threatened the safety of Norfolk, and, by the
+Peninsula of the lower approaches to Richmond, Alexandria could hold a
+formidable army, ready at any moment to swoop down by the upper and
+more accessible approaches around Orange Courthouse. The occupation of
+Alexandria by the Union forces on the 24th of May was looked upon by
+Confederate leaders as the most decided act of war yet ventured upon
+by their wary adversary. Whatever may have been done within the
+_non-seceded_ states, the South deluded herself that it was simply
+an exposition of the power of the government--a sort of Chinese warfare
+of gongs and tom-toms. The passage of the Potomac and seizure of a city
+under the aegis of the Confederate Government was actually crossing the
+Rubicon and carrying the war directly into the southern territory.
+Fortress Monroe and other fortified points still held by the United
+States, in the South, were conceded to be in a measure hers, at least
+by the right of possession; but Alexandria was considered part and
+parcel of the Confederacy, and as such sacred from invasion. Hence no
+means were taken to prevent its occupation. On Virginia soil--many of
+its' citizens already in the rebel ranks, and its houses a rendezvous
+for the cavalry of the Virginia army, its seizure was construed to mean
+real invasion.
+
+The possession of this key to the land approaches of Richmond; its
+great facilities of re-enforcement and supply by propinquity to the
+depots at Washington and elsewhere; and the determined intention of the
+Federals to hold and use it, could not be misunderstood.
+
+And while the Southern Government felt the advantages its possession
+gave the Union troops for concentrating and advancing, the people were
+aroused to a pitch of high indignation by the choice of the troops sent
+to first invade their soil.
+
+The war, too, was yet young enough to leave all the romance about it;
+scenes of violence were as yet rare; and the death of Jackson, with the
+circumstances attending it, caused a deep and general feeling of
+bitterness. While the southern public opened its arms and took to its
+sympathy and protection the widow and orphans of the first Virginian
+whose blood was shed in her cause, many and bitter were the vows made
+around the bivouac to avenge his untimely end. The men who made the
+grim vow were of the stuff to keep it; the name of "Jackson, the
+Martyr," became a war-cry, and the bloody tracks of Manassas
+
+    "How that oath was kept can tell!"
+
+On the 23d of May, Joseph E. Johnston received his commission as
+General in the Regular Army, and went to Harper's Ferry in command of
+all troops in that region--known as the Army of the Shenandoah.
+Beauregard, with the same grade, was recalled on his way to the West,
+and sent to command at Manassas.
+
+From the great ease of putting troops across the fords of the Potomac
+into Virginia, it was considered necessary to concentrate, at points
+from which they could be easily shifted, a sufficient reliable force to
+meet any such movement; and the two officers in whom the government had
+greatest confidence as tacticians, were sent to watch for and checkmate
+it.
+
+Meanwhile, Missouri had risen, the governor had declared the rights of
+the State infringed; and the movements of Generals Lyon and
+Blair--culminating in the St. Louis riots between the citizens and the
+Dutch soldiery--had put an end to all semblance of neutrality. Governor
+Jackson moved the state archives, and transferred the capital from
+Jefferson City to Boonesville. On the 13th of June he issued a
+proclamation calling for fifty thousand volunteers to defend the State
+of Missouri from Federal invasion; and appointed Sterling Price a
+major-general, with nine brigadiers, among whom were Jeff Thompson,
+Clark and Parsons. Perhaps no state went into open resistance of the
+United States authority as unprepared in every way as Missouri. Her
+population was scattered; one-half Union, and utterly ignorant of
+drill, discipline, or any of the arts of war. They were, besides,
+perfectly unarmed, except with their hunting pieces, and the state
+Capital, the arsenals and all the larger towns were in possession of
+the Union troops. These laughed at the attempt of Missouri to shake off
+the grasp of the government, and their generals boldly proclaimed that
+"she was under the paws of the lion, and her first movement would cause
+them to close and crush her life out."
+
+Still, Price, seconded by his brigadiers, went to work with great
+activity to collect their scattered adherents and put them into form.
+In a country held by superior forces, with communications cut up and no
+means of information, the task was Herculean, indeed. Yet they
+endeavored by zeal and energy to make amends for these deficiencies and
+for the want of supplies. Price's name was a tower of strength in
+itself; his hardy compatriots flocked around him, and nearly every day
+there were collisions between them and the United States troops. These
+skirmishes, though unimportant in themselves, gave the new soldiers
+lessons in war; and not infrequently added to their scanty stock of
+arms and equipments. They were but the first dashes in the grand
+tableaux of war that Price was yet to hew, with the bold hand of a
+master, from the crude mass of material alone in his power to use.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE LEADERS AND THE LED.
+
+
+Thus much of detail arranged, General Lee was, for the present,
+detained in Richmond by the President, as consulting and organizing
+officer; and to aid the Adjutant-General--Samuel Cooper, senior general
+of the five--in the location of armies, distribution of troops, and
+assignment of officers. General Lee's perfect knowledge of the
+_materiel_ of the Virginia army and of the topographical features of
+the state, peculiarly fitted him for this work; but every step was
+taken subject to the decision of Mr. Davis himself. The appointments of
+officers, the distribution of troops--in fact, the minutiae of the War
+Department--were managed by him in person.
+
+He seemed fully alive to the vital importance of making the groundwork
+of the military system solid and smooth. Real preparations had begun so
+late that only the strong hand could now avail; and though Mr. Walker
+still held the empty portfolio of the secretaryship, he, and the army,
+and the country knew who, in fact, did the work. But to do Mr. Davis
+justice, he did not make his _fantoccini_ suffer if he pulled the
+wires the wrong way. He was not only President and secretary of five
+departments--which naturally caused some errors; but that spice of the
+dictator in him made him quite willing to shoulder the responsibilities
+of all the positions.
+
+Now, as in Montgomery, I wondered that the frail body--that could not
+bend--did not break beneath the load of anxiety and bodily labor he
+imposed upon it. His energy and industry were untiring; and every
+afternoon the declining sun found him in the saddle, inspecting and
+reviewing the troops, at one of the many camps near town. Sometimes the
+hard, stolid face of the Postmaster-General appeared at his side; again
+Senator Wigfall galloped along, with his pants stuck in his boots and
+seeming to enjoy the saddle much more than the curule chair; and often
+"Little Jeff"--the Benjamin of Mr. Davis' household--trotted at his
+side. But there was never a suite, seldom a courier; and wherever he
+went, plain, stirring syllables of cheer--and strong, grave words of
+incentive--dropped from his lips among the soldiery. They were
+treasured as the truth, too, by that rough auditory; for as yet, Mr.
+Davis was in the zenith of his popularity--a perfect idol with army and
+people. The first sight of the tall, erect figure, swaying so easily to
+the action of the powerful gray, was a signal for the wildest cheers
+from the camps; and the people in the streets raised their hats and
+stood uncovered while the representative man passed.
+
+Cavil, jealousy and partisan intrigue, in which he and the cause
+finally went down together, had not yet done their work. There were
+many murmurers at real, many growlers at supposed, errors; but no
+opposition party--truer to itself and its interests than to the
+cause--had yet been organized on a basis strong enough to defy and
+thwart "the man."
+
+Every one connected with the government remarked the vast difference of
+its reception by the Richmond and Montgomery people. The Alabamians
+came forward with decision and alacrity to offer their lives and
+fortunes to the cause. They made any sacrifices to the government, as
+such; but, privately, they regarded the individuals connected with it
+as social brigands come to rob their society of all that was good and
+pure in it.
+
+Richmond, on the contrary, having given the invitation, made the best
+of it when accepted. The people united in sincere effort to show a
+whole-souled hospitality to all strangers deserving of it. Gentlemen in
+the government were received with frank and free-handed kindness; and
+even a wretch, who had wintered in the shade of the Washington upas,
+was allowed to flutter about and not be gunned for by the
+double-barreled spectacles of every respectable dowager!
+
+Richmond was always a great place for excitements; but with the great
+addition of inflammable material recently, it required but a very small
+spark to raise a roaring, if not dangerous, flame.
+
+On a bright Sunday in April, when
+
+    "The beams of God's own hallowed day
+      Had painted every spire with gold,
+    And, calling sinful men to pray,
+      Long, loud and deep the bell had tolled"--
+
+the citizens were worshipping quietly and a peaceful stillness reigned
+everywhere. Suddenly, as if a rocket had gone up, the rumor flew from
+mouth to mouth that the "Pawnee" was steaming up the river to shell the
+city. The congregations, not waiting to be dismissed, rushed from the
+churches with a single impulse; the alarm bell in the Square pealed out
+with a frightened chime. For once, even the women of Richmond were
+alarmed. The whole population flocked toward "Rocketts"--every eye
+strained to catch a first glimpse of the terrible monster approaching
+so rapidly. Old and young men, in Sunday attire, hastened along with
+rusty muskets and neat "Mantons" on their shoulders; groups of
+bareheaded ladies were at the corners, asking the news and repeating
+every fear-invented tale; and more than one of the "solid men" was seen
+with hand-baskets, loaded with rock, to dam the river! Late in the
+evening, the veterans of six hours were dismissed, it turning out that
+there was no cause whatever for the alarm; and when after events showed
+them that vessel--so battered and badgered by the river
+batteries--"Pawnee Sunday" became a by-word among the citizens.
+
+Richmond was not cosmopolitan in her habits or ideas, and there was, in
+some quarters, a vague, lingering suspicion as to the result of the
+experiment; but the society felt that the government was its guest, and
+as such was to be honored. The city itself was a small one, the society
+was general and provincial; and there was in it a sort of
+brotherly-love tone that struck a stranger, at first, as very curious.
+This was, in a great measure, attributable to the fact that the social
+circle had been for years a constant quantity, and everybody in it had
+known everybody else since childhood.
+
+The men, as a general thing, were very cordial to the strangers, and
+some very delightful and some very odd acquaintances were made among
+them. Chief among the latter was one, whom we may call--as he would say
+"for euphony"--Will Wyatt; the most perfect specimen of the genus
+man-about-town in the city. He was very young, with wealth, a pleasing
+exterior, and an absolute greed for society. His naturally good mind
+had been very prettily cultivated--by himself rather than his
+masters--and he had traveled just enough to understand, without
+despising, the weaknesses of his compatriots. He and the omniscient
+Styles were fast friends, and a card to Wyatt, signed "Fondly thine
+own, S. S.," had done the business for me. His house, horses and
+friends were all at my service; and in the few intervals that anxiety
+and duty left for ennui, he effectually drove the monster off.
+
+"I'm devilish sorry, old man," he said, one day, after we got well
+acquainted, "that there's nothing going on in the social line. Drop in
+on me at six, to dinner; and I'll show you a clever fellow or two, and
+maybe have some music. You understand, my dear boy, we don't entertain
+now. After all, it's so late in the season there'd be little doing in
+peace times; but this infernal war has smashed us up completely.
+Getting your nose red taking leave of your tender family is the only
+style they vote at all nobby now--_A diner!_"
+
+The dinner and music at Wyatt's were not warlike--and particularly was
+the wine not of that description; but the men were. Over cigars, the
+conversation turned upon the organization of the army; and, accustomed
+as I was to seeing "the best men in the ranks," the way these young
+bloods talked rather astounded me.
+
+"Private in 'Co. F,'" answered John C. to my query--he represented one
+of the finest estates on the river--"You've heard of 'F,' of course. We
+hang by the old company. Wyatt has just refused a captaincy of
+engineers to stick as third corporal."
+
+"Neat that, in John," put in Wyatt, "when he was offered the majority
+of a regiment of cavalry and refused it to stay in."
+
+"And why not?" said George H. shortly. "Pass the Madeira, Will. I
+wouldn't give my place in 'F' for the best majority going. As far as
+that goes it's a mere matter of taste, I know. But the fact is, if we
+of the old organizations dodge our duty now by hunting commissions, how
+can we hope that the people will come to time promptly?" George H. had
+a quarter of a million to his credit, and was an only son--"Now, I
+think Bev did a foolish thing not to take his regiment when Uncle Jeff
+offered him the commission."
+
+"I don't see it," responded Beverly I. in an aggrieved tone. "You
+fellows in 'F' were down on your captain when he took his colonelcy;
+and I'm as proud of my junior lieutenancy in the old First, as if I
+commanded 'F' company itself!"
+
+"But is it usual," I queried, "for you gentlemen to refuse promotion
+when offered--I don't mean to not seek it--to remain with your old
+companies? Would you stay in the ranks as a private when as a captain
+or major you might do better service?"
+
+"_Peutetre_ for the present," responded Wyatt--"Don't misunderstand us;
+we're not riding at windmills, and I sincerely hope you'll see us all
+with wreaths on our collars yet. But there's a tacit agreement that
+just now we can do more good in the ranks than anywhere else. For
+myself, I don't delight in drill and dirt, and don't endorse that
+sentimental bosh about the 'post of honor.' But our duty is where we
+can do most good, and our example will decide many doubtful ones and
+shame the laggard."
+
+"And we'll all go out after a few fights, if we don't get popped off,"
+put in George H., "and then we'll feel we've won our spurs!"
+
+"Well, I'm not too modest to say that I think we _are_ pretty expensive
+food for powder," said John C., "but then we're not worth more than the
+'Crescents,' the 'Cadets,' or 'Hampton's Legion.' The colonel's sons
+are both in the ranks of the Legion, and refused commissions. Why
+should the best blood of Carolina do more than the best blood of
+Virginia?"
+
+"And see those Baltimore boys," said Adjutant Y., of a Georgia legion.
+"They've given up home, friends and wealth to come and fight for us and
+the cause. They don't go round begging for commissions! If my colonel
+didn't insist I was more useful where I am, I'd drop the bar and take a
+musket among them. That sort of stock I like!" But if Lieutenant Y.
+_had_ taken the musket, a stray bullet might have spoiled a most
+dashing major-general of cavalry.
+
+"I fear very much," I answered, "that the war will be long enough for
+all the really good material to come to the surface. The preparations
+at the North are on a scale we never before dreamed of, and her
+government seems determined to enforce obedience."
+
+"God forbid!" and Wyatt spoke more solemnly than I ever heard him
+before. "But I begin to believe as you do. I'd sooner risk my wreath
+than that 'the good material' you speak of should have the 'chance to
+come to the surface.' Think how many a good fellow would be under the
+surface by that time!"
+
+"It sometimes sickens me on parade," said George H., "when I look down
+the line and think what a gap in our old set a volley will make! I
+think we _are_ pretty expensive food for powder, John. Minies are no
+respecters of persons, old fellow; and there'll be many a black dress
+in Richmond after the first bulletin."
+
+"God send we may all meet here after the war, and drink to the New
+Nation in Wyatt's sherry!" said Lieutenant Y. "It's better than the
+water at Howard's Grove. But the mare'll have hot work to get the
+adjutant into camp before taps. So, here's how!" and he filled his
+glass and tossed it off, as we broke up.
+
+I have recorded the spirit of a private, everyday conversation, just as
+I heard it over a dinner-table, from a party of giddy young men. But I
+thought over it long that night; and many times afterward when the
+sickening bulletins were posted after the battles.
+
+Here were as gay and reckless a set of youths as wealth, position and
+everything to make life dear to them could produce, going into a
+desperate war--with a perfect sense of its perils, its probable
+duration and its rewards--yet refusing promotion offered, that their
+example might be more beneficial in calling out volunteers.
+
+And there was no Quixotism. It was the result of reason and a
+conviction that they were only doing their duty; for, I believe every
+man of those I had just left perfectly appreciated the trials and
+discomforts he was preparing for himself, and felt the advantages that
+a commission, this early in the war, would give him!
+
+It may be that this "romance of war" was not of long duration; and that
+after the first campaign the better class of men anxiously sought
+promotion. This was natural enough. They had won the right to it; and
+the sacrifice of their good example had not been without effect. But I
+do think it was much less natural that they should have so acted in the
+first place.
+
+Industry and bustle were still the order of the day in camp; and, in
+town, the activity increased rather than abated. There were few idlers
+about Richmond, even chronic "do-nothings" becoming impressed with the
+idea that in the universal work they must do something.
+
+The name of Henry A. Wise was relied upon by the Government as a great
+power to draw volunteers from the people he had so frequently
+represented in various capacities. The commission of brigadier-general
+was given him, with authority to raise a brigade to be called the "Wise
+Legion," to operate in Western Virginia. Though there was no reason to
+think Wise would make a great soldier, his personal popularity was
+supposed to be sufficient to counterbalance that objection; for it was
+of the first importance to the Government that the western half of the
+State should be saved to the Confederate cause. In the first place, the
+active and hardy population was splendid material for soldiers, and it
+was believed at Richmond that, with proper pressure applied, they would
+take up arms for the South in great numbers; otherwise, when the
+Federal troops advanced into their country, they might go to the other
+side. Again, the products of the rich western region were almost
+essential to the support of the troops in Virginia, in view of
+contracted facilities for transportation; and the product of the
+Kanawha Salines alone--the only regular and very extensive salt works
+in the country--were worth a strenuous effort. This portion of
+Virginia, too, was a great military highway for United States troops,
+_en route_ to the West; and once securely lodged in its almost
+impregnable fastnesses, their ejection would be practically impossible.
+
+General Garnett--an old army officer of reputation and promise--was
+already in that field, with a handful of troops from the Virginia army;
+among them a regiment from about Richmond, commanded by Lieutenant
+Colonel Pegram. The Federals, grasping at once the full importance of
+this position, had sent to meet this demonstration an army under
+General McClellan, with Rosecrans commanding the advance. There had
+been no collision, but its approach could not be long delayed; and the
+South wanted men.
+
+In this posture of affairs, General Wise received his commission and
+orders. The old politician donned his uniform with great alacrity;
+called about him a few of the best companies of Richmond, as a nucleus;
+and went to work with all the vim and activity expected by those who
+knew him best. The "Richmond Light Infantry Blues"--the oldest company
+in Richmond, commanded by his son--was foremost among them. "Co. F" was
+to go West, too; and though its members, one and all, would have
+preferred a more promising sphere of duty, at Yorktown, or on the
+Potomac, every man acquiesced with cheerful spirit.
+
+"Sair was the weeping" of the matrons and maidens of Richmond, when
+told their darlings were to go; but their sorrow did not prevent the
+most active demonstrations toward the comfort of the outer and inner
+man.
+
+"Not a pleasant summer jaunt we're to have, old man," Wyatt said when
+he bade me good-bye. "I've been to that country hunting and found it
+devilish fine; but 'tisn't so fine by half when you're hunting a Yank,
+who has a long-range rifle and is likewise hunting for you. Then I've
+an idea of perpetual snow--glaciers--and all that sort of thing. I feel
+like the new John Franklin. But I'll write a book--'Trapping the Yank
+in the Ice-fields of the South.' Taking title, eh? But seriously, I
+know we can't all go to Beauregard; and there'll be fighting enough all
+round before it 'holds up.' God bless you! We'll meet somewhere; if not
+before, when I come down in the fall to show you the new stars on my
+collar!"
+
+Thus "Co. F" went into the campaign. Its record there is history. So is
+that of many another like it.
+
+As I have tried to show, this spirit pervaded the whole South to an
+almost universal extent. Companies like these, scattered among the
+grosser material of the army, must have been the alloy that gave to the
+whole mass that true ring which will sound down all history! The coarse
+natures around could but be shamed into imitation, when they saw the
+delicately nurtured darlings of society toiling through mud knee deep,
+or sleeping in stiffening blankets, without a murmur! And many a charge
+has been saved because a regiment like the First Virginia or the
+Alabama Third walked straight into the iron hail, as though it had been
+a carnival pelting!
+
+The man who tells us that blood has little effect must have read
+history to very little purpose; or have looked very carelessly into the
+glass that Nature hourly holds up to his view.
+
+Wyatt was right when he said "there was nothing doing" socially. But
+there was much doing otherwise. The war was young yet, and each
+household had its engrossing excitement in getting its loved ones ready
+for the field. The pets of the ball-room were to lay aside broadcloth
+and kids; and the pump-soled boots of the "german" were to be changed
+for the brogan of the camp.
+
+The women of the city were too busy now to care for society and its
+frippery; the new objects of life filled every hour. The anxieties of
+the war were not yet a twice-told tale, and no artificial excitements
+were needed to drive them away. The women of Virginia, like her men,
+were animated with a spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice. Mothers
+sent their youngest born to the front, and bade them bear their
+shields, or be found under them; and the damsel who did not bid her
+lover "God speed and go!" would have been a finger point and a scoff.
+And the flags for their pet regiments--though many a bitter tear was
+broidered into their folds--were always given with the brave injunction
+to bear them worthily, even to the death!
+
+The spirit upon the people--one and all--was "The cause--not us!" and
+under the rough gray, hearts beat with as high a chivalry as--
+
+    "In the brave, good days of old,
+    When men for virtue and honor fought
+      In serried ranks, 'neath their banners bright,
+    By the fairy hands of beauty wrought,
+      And broidered with 'God and Right!'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE BAPTISM OF BLOOD.
+
+
+On the afternoon of June 10, 1861, Richmond was thrown into a
+commotion--though of a different nature--hardly exceeded by that
+exciting Sabbath, "Pawnee Sunday." Jubilant, but agitated crowds
+collected at the telegraph offices, the hotels and the doors of the War
+Department, to get the news of the first fight on Virginia soil.
+
+That morning the enemy had pressed boldly forward, in three heavy
+columns, against Magruder's lines at Big Bethel Church. He had been
+sharply repulsed in several distinct charges, with heavy loss, by D. H.
+Hill's regiment--the first North Carolina, and two guns of the Richmond
+Howitzers, commanded by Major John W. Randolph--afterward Secretary of
+War.
+
+Naturally there was great and deep rejoicing over this news in all
+quarters and from all classes. None had expected a different general
+result; for the confidence in Magruder's ability at that time, and in
+the pluck of his troops, was perfect; but the ease and dash with which
+the victory had been achieved was looked upon as the sure presage of
+great success elsewhere.
+
+Although the conduct of the fight had been in the hands of Colonel D.
+H. Hill--afterward so well known as a staunch and hard fighting
+officer--and his North Carolinians had illustrated it by more than one
+act of personal daring; still the cannon had done the main work and it
+was taken as a Richmond victory.
+
+The small loss, too, where the home people had been so deeply
+interested, added a cheering glow to the news that nothing else could
+have given. Bowed and venerable men, little girls and tremulous old
+women spoke of the fight "we won." And why not? Were not their sons,
+and husbands, and brothers, really a part of them?
+
+It was curious to see how prone the women were to attribute the result
+to a special interposition of Divine aid, and to share the laurels,
+gathered that bright June day, with a higher Power than rested in a
+Springfield rifle, or a 12-pr. howitzer.
+
+"Don't you tell me one word, cap'n!" I heard an old lady exclaim in
+great ire, at the door of the War Department, "Provi-_dence_ is
+a-fightin' our battles for us! The Lord _is_ with us, and thar's his
+handwritin'--_jest as plain!_"
+
+"Don't say nothin' agin' that, marm," answered the western captain,
+with Cromwellian sagacity; "but ef we don't help Providence powerful
+hard we ain't agoin' ter win!"
+
+There was a perfect atmosphere of triumph all over the state. Troops
+lying in camp began to get restless and eager to go at once--even
+half-prepared as many of them were--to the front. Perfect confidence in
+the ability of the South to beat back any advance had been before the
+too prevalent idea of army and people; and the ease of the victory
+added to this conviction a glow of exultation over the invincibility of
+the southern soldier.
+
+But the confidence begotten by the result had, as yet, a beneficial
+rather than a bad effect. Enlistments were stimulated and camps of
+instruction vied with each other in energy of preparation and close
+attention to drill. Every soldier felt that the struggle might be
+fierce, but would certainly be short; and the meanest private panted to
+have his share in the triumphant work while there was yet a chance. The
+women worked harder than ever; and at every sewing-circle the story of
+the fight was retold with many a glowing touch added by skillful
+narration. And while soft eyes flashed and delicate cheeks glowed at
+the music of the recital, needles glanced quicker still through the
+tough fabric for those "dear boys!"
+
+Along the other army lines, the news from Magruder's inspired the men
+with a wild desire to dash forward and have their turn, before the
+whole crop of early laurels was gathered. An aide on General
+Beauregard's staff came down from Manassas a few days after Bethel, in
+charge of prisoners; and he told me that the men had been in a state of
+nervous excitement for an advance before, but now were so wild over the
+news, it was hard to restrain them from advancing of their own accord.
+
+The clear-headed generals in command, however, looked over the flash
+and glitter of the first success, to the sterner realities beyond; and
+they drew the bands of discipline only tighter--and administered the
+wholesome tonic of regular drill--the nearer they saw the approach of
+real work.
+
+The Government, too, hailed the success at Bethel as an omen of the
+future; but rather that it tested the spirit of the troops and their
+ability to stand fire, than from any solid fruits of the fight. They
+understood that it was scarcely a check to the great advance to be
+made; and though perhaps not "only a reconnaissance that accomplished
+its intention," as the Federal officers declared, it was yet only the
+result of such a movement. True, eighteen hundred raw troops, never
+under fire, had met more than double their number and fought steadily
+and well from nine o'clock till two; and had, besides, accomplished
+this with the insignificant loss of _one_ killed and seven wounded!
+
+But this was not yet the test that was to try how fit they were to
+fight for the principles for which they had so promptly flown to arms.
+The great shock was to come in far different form; and every nerve was
+strained to meet the issue when made.
+
+The Ordnance Department had been organized, and already brought to a
+point of efficiency, by Major Gorgas--a resigned officer of the United
+States Artillery; and it was ably seconded by the Tredegar Works. All
+night long the dwellers on Gamble's Hill saw their furnaces shine with
+a steady glow, and the tall chimneys belch out clouds of dense,
+luminous smoke into the night. At almost any hour of the day, Mr.
+Tanner's well-known black horses could be seen at the door of the War
+Department, or dashing thence to the foundry, or one of the depots. As
+consequence of this energy and industry, huge trains of heavy guns, and
+improved ordnance of every kind, were shipped off to the threatened
+points, almost daily, to the full capacity of limited rolling stock on
+the roads. The new regiments were rapidly armed; their old-style
+muskets exchanged for better ones, to be in their turn put through the
+improving Tredegar process. Battery equipments, harness works,
+forges--in fact, all requirements for the service--were at once put in
+operation under the working order and system introduced into the
+bureaux. The efficiency of the southern artillery--until paralyzed by
+the breaking down of its horses--is sufficient proof how this branch
+was conducted.
+
+The Medical Department--to play so important and needful a part in the
+coming days of blood--was now thoroughly reorganized and placed on
+really efficient footing. Surgeons of all ages--some of first force and
+of highest reputation in the South--left home and practice, to seek and
+receive positions under it. These, on passing examination and receiving
+commission, were sent to points where most needed, with full
+instructions to prepare to the utmost for the comfort of the sick and
+wounded. Medicines, instruments, stretchers and supplies of all sorts
+were freely sent to the purveyors in the field--where possible,
+appointed from experienced surgeons of the old service; while the
+principal hospitals and depots in Richmond were put in perfect order to
+receive their expected tenants, under the personal supervision of the
+Surgeon-General.
+
+The Quartermaster's Department, both for railroad transportation and
+field service, underwent a radical change, as experience of the early
+campaign pointed out its imperfections. This department is the life of
+the army--the supplies of every description must be received through
+its hands. Efficiently directed, it can contribute to the most
+brilliant results, and badly handled, can thwart the most perfectly
+matured plans of genius, or generalship.
+
+Colonel A. C. Myers, who was early made Acting Quartermaster-General,
+had the benefit of the assistance and advice of an able corps of
+subordinates--both from the old service and from the active business
+men of the South; and, whatever may have been its later abuses, at this
+time the bureau was managed with an efficiency and vigor that could
+scarcely have been looked for in so new an organization.
+
+The Commissariat alone was badly managed from its very inception.
+Murmurs loud and deep arose from every quarter against its numerous
+errors and abuses; and the sagacity of Mr. Davis--so entirely approved
+elsewhere--was in this case more than doubted. Colonel Northrop had
+been an officer of cavalry, but for many years had been on a quasi
+sick-leave, away from all connection with any branch of the army--save,
+perhaps, the paymaster's office. The reason for his appointment to,
+perhaps, the most responsible bureau of the War Department was a
+mystery to people everywhere.
+
+Suddenly the news from Rich Mountain came. It fell like a thunderbolt
+from the summer sky, that the people deluded themselves was to sail
+over them with never a cloud! The flood-tide of success, upon which
+they had been floating so gaily, was suddenly dammed and flowed back
+upon them in surges of sullen gloom.
+
+The southern masses are essentially mercurial and are more given to
+sudden extremes of hope and despondency than any people in the
+world--except, perhaps, the French. Any event in which they are
+interested can, by a partial success, carry them up to a glowing
+enthusiasm, or depress them to zero by its approach to failure. The
+buzz and stir of preparation, the constant exertion attending it and
+their absorbing interest in the cause, had all prepared the people,
+more than ordinarily even, for one of these barometric shiftings. The
+news from Bethel had made them almost wild with joy and caused an
+excessive elation that could ill bear a shock. The misfortune at Rich
+Mountain threw a corresponding gloom over the whole face of affairs;
+and, as the success at Bethel had been overrated from the Potomac to
+the Gulf, so this defeat was deemed of more serious importance than it
+really was.
+
+This feeling in Richmond was much aggravated by her own peculiar loss.
+Some of her best men had been in the fight, and all that could be
+learned of them was that they were scattered, or shot. Garnett was
+dead; the gallant DeLagnel was shot down fighting to the last; and
+Pegram was a prisoner--the gallant regiment he led cut up and
+dispersed!
+
+Only a few days before, a crowd of the fairest and most honored that
+Richmond could boast had assembled at the depot to bid them God speed!
+Crowds of fellow soldiers had clustered round them, hard hands had
+clasped theirs--while bright smiles of cheer broke through the tears on
+softest cheeks; and, as the train whirled off and the banner that
+tender hands had worked--with a feeling "passing the love of
+woman"--waved over them, wreathed with flowers, not a heart was in the
+throng but beat high with anticipation of brave deed and brilliant
+victory following its folds.
+
+Scarcely had these flowers withered when the regiment--shattered and
+beaten--was borne down by numbers, and the flag itself sullied and torn
+by the tramp of its conquerors. And the shame of defeat was much
+heightened to these good people, by the agonies of suspense as to the
+fate of their loved ones. It was three days after the news of the
+disaster reached the War Department before the death of Garnett was a
+certainty; and longer time still elapsed ere the minor casualties were
+known. When they did come, weeping sounded through many a Virginia home
+for its stay, or its darling, stark on the distant battle-field, or
+carried into captivity.
+
+The details of the fight were generally and warmly discussed, but with
+much more of feeling than of knowledge of their real bearings. Public
+opinion fixed the result decidedly as the consequence of want of skill
+and judgment, in dividing the brigade at a critical moment. There was a
+balm in the reflection, however, that though broken and beaten, the men
+had fought well in the face of heavy odds; and that their officers had
+striven by every effort of manhood to hold them to their duty. General
+Garnett had exposed himself constantly, and was killed by a
+sharp-shooter at Carrock's Ford--over which he had brought the remnant
+of his army by a masterly retreat--while holding the stream at the head
+of a small squad. Pegram fought with gallantry and determination. He
+felt the position untenable and had remonstrated against holding it;
+yet the admirable disposition of his few troops, and the skill and
+courage with which he had managed them, had cost the enemy many a man
+before the mountain was won. Captured and bruised by the fall of his
+horse, he refused to surrender his sword until an officer, his equal in
+rank, should demand it. DeLagnel cheered his men till they fell between
+the guns they could no longer work; then seized the rammer himself and
+loaded the piece till he, too, was shot down. Wounded, he still fought
+with his pistol, till a bayonet thrust stretched him senseless.
+
+These brilliant episodes illustrated the gloomy story of the defeat;
+but it still caused very deep and general depression. This was only
+partly relieved by the news that followed so closely upon it, of the
+brilliant success of General Price's army at Carthage. Missouri was so
+far away that the loudest shouts of victory there could echo but dimly
+in the ears at Richmond, already dulled by Rich Mountain. Still, it
+checked the blue mood of the public to some extent; and the Government
+saw in it much more encouragement than the people.
+
+There had been much doubt among the southern leaders as to the _materiel_
+of the western armies, on both sides. Old and tried officers felt
+secure, _ceteris paribus_, of success against the northern troops of
+the coast, or Middle States; but the hardy hunters from the West and
+North-west were men of a very different stamp. The resources of the
+whole country had been strained to send into Virginia such an army in
+numbers and equipment as the preparation for invasion of her borders
+seemed to warrant. This had left the South and South-west rather more
+thinly garrisoned than all deemed prudent. The grounds for security in
+Virginia were that the mass of the southern troops were thoroughly
+accustomed to the use of arms and perfectly at home on horseback; and
+no doubts were felt that the men of the North-eastern States, there
+opposed to them, were far below them in both requirements. The superior
+excellence of the latter in arms, equipment, and perhaps discipline,
+was more than compensated to the former by their greater familiarity
+with the arms they carried and their superiority of physique and
+endurance. Any advantage of numbers, it was argued, was made up by the
+fact of the invading army being forced to fight on the ground chosen by
+the invaded; and in the excellence of her tacticians, rather more than
+in any expected equality of numbers, the main reliance of the southern
+government was placed. Hence it was full of confidence as to the result
+in the East.
+
+In the West, it was far different. There the armies of the United
+States were recruited from the hardy trappers and frontiersmen of the
+border; from the sturdy yeomen of the inland farms; and, in many
+instances, whole districts had separated, and men from adjoining farms
+had gone to join in a deadly fight, in opposing ranks. Though the
+partisan spirit with these was stronger than with other southern
+troops--for they added the bitterness of personal hate to the sectional
+feeling--yet thinking people felt that the men themselves were more
+equally matched in courage, endurance and the knowledge of arms.
+
+It is an old axiom in war, that when the _personnel_ of armies is
+equal, victory is apt to rest with numbers. In the West, the United
+States not only had the numbers in their favor, but they were better
+equipped in every way; and the only hope of the South was in the
+superiority of its generals in strategic ability.
+
+Thus, the fight at Carthage was viewed by the Government as a test
+question of deep meaning; and Sterling Price began at once to rank as a
+rising man. The general gloom through the country began to wear off,
+but that feeling of overweening confidence, in which the people had so
+universally indulged, was much shaken; and it was with some misgivings
+as to the perfect certainty of success that they began to look upon the
+tremendous preparations for the Virginia campaign, to which the North
+was bending its every effort, under the personal supervision of General
+Scott. The bitterness that the mass of the people of the
+South--especially in Virginia--felt against that officer did not affect
+their exalted opinion of his vast grasp of mind and great military
+science. The people, as a body, seldom reason deeply upon such points;
+and it would probably have been hard to find out why it was so; but the
+majority of his fellow-statesmen certainly feared and hated "the
+general" in about an equal degree. It was a good thing for the South
+that this was the case; and that the mighty "On to Richmond!"--the
+clang of which was resounding to the farthest limits of the North and
+sending its threatening echoes over the Potomac--was recognized by them
+as a serious and determined attempt upon the new Capital.
+
+Every fresh mail, through "the blockade," brought more and more
+astounding intelligence of these vast preparations. Every fresh cap
+that was exploded, every new flag that was broidered, was duly
+chronicled by the rabid press. The editors of the North seemed to have
+gone military mad; and when they did not dictate plans of battles,
+lecture their government and bully its generals, they told wondrous
+stories of an army that Xerxes might have gaped to see.
+
+All the newspaper bombast could easily be sifted, however; and private
+letters from reliable sources of intelligence over the Potomac all
+agreed as to the vast scale and perfection of arrangement of the onward
+movement. The public pulse in the South had settled again to a steady
+and regular beat; but it visibly quickened as the time of trial
+approached.
+
+And that time could not be long delayed!
+
+The army of Virginia was in great spirits. Each change of
+position--every fresh disposition of troops--told them that their
+leaders expected a fight at any moment; and they panted for it and
+chafed under the necessary restraints of discipline, like hounds in the
+leash.
+
+When General Johnston took command of the "Army of the Shenandoah" at
+Harper's Ferry, he at once saw that with the small force at his command
+the position was untenable. To hold it, the heights on both sides of
+the river commanding it would have to be fortified, and a clear line of
+communication maintained with his base.
+
+General McClellan, with a force equal to his, was hovering about Romney
+and the upper Valley, ready at any moment to swoop down upon his flank
+and make a junction with Patterson, who was in his front, thus crushing
+him between them. Patterson was threatening Winchester, at which point
+he would be able to cut Johnston's supplies and at the same time effect
+his desired junction with McClellan.
+
+To prevent this, about the middle of June, General Johnston evacuated
+Harper's Ferry, destroying the magazines and a vast amount of property,
+and fell back to Winchester. Then, for one month, Patterson and he
+played at military chess, on a field ranging from Winchester to
+Martinsburg, without advantage on either side. At the end of that
+time--on the 15th of July--the former made his grand feint of an
+advance, which Colonel Jeb Stuart--who was scouting in his
+front--declared to be a real movement; warning General Johnston that
+the blow was at last to fall in earnest. This warning the clear-headed
+and subtle tactician took in such part, that he at once prepared to
+dispatch his whole force to Manassas to join Beauregard. Well did
+General Scott say, "Beware of Johnston's retreats;" for--whatever the
+country may have thought of it at the time--the retreat from Harper's
+Ferry culminated in the battle of Manassas!
+
+Meanwhile, in Richmond the excitement steadily rose, but the work of
+strengthening the defenses went steadily on. Fresh troops arrived
+daily--from the South by cars--from the West by railroad and canal; and
+from the country around Richmond they marched in. Rumors of the wildest
+and most varied sort could be heard at any hour. Now Magruder had
+gained a terrible victory at Big Bethel, and had strewn the ground for
+miles with the slain and spoils! Then Johnston had met the enemy at
+Winchester and, after oceans of blood, had driven him from the field in
+utter rout! Again Beauregard had cut McDowell to pieces and planted the
+stars-and-bars over Alexandria and Arlington Heights! Such was the
+morbid state of the public mind that any rumor, however fanciful,
+received some credit.
+
+Each night some regiments broke camp noiselessly and filed through the
+streets like the army of specters that
+
+    "Beleaguered the walls of Prague,"
+
+to fill a train on the Central, or Fredericksburg road, _en route_ for
+Manassas. Constantly, at gray dawn the dull, rumbling sound, cut
+sharply by the clear note of the bugle, told of moving batteries; and
+the tramp of cavalry became so accustomed a sound, that people scarcely
+left their work even to cheer the wild and rugged-looking horsemen
+passing by.
+
+Then it began to be understood, all over the country, that the great
+advance would be over the Potomac; that the first decisive battle would
+be joined by the Army of the Shenandoah, or that of Manassas.
+
+A hushed, feverish suspense--like the sultry stillness before the burst
+of the storm-brooded over the land, shared alike by the people and
+government.
+
+My old friend--the colonel of the "Ranche" and "Zouave" memory--was
+stationed at Richmond headquarters. Many were the tribulations that
+sorely beset the soul of that old soldier and clubman. He had served so
+long with regulars that he could not get accustomed to the
+irregularities of the "mustangs," as he called the volunteers; many
+were the culinary grievances of which he relieved his rotund breast to
+me; and numerous were the early bits of news he confidentially dropped
+into my ear, before they were known elsewhere.
+
+The evening of the 18th of July--hot, sultry and threatening rain--had
+been more quiet than usual. Not a rumor had been set afloat; and the
+monotony was only broken by a group of officers about the "Spotswood"
+discussing Bethel, Rich Mountain and the chances of the next fight. One
+of them, with three stars on his collar, had just declared his
+conviction:
+
+"It's only a feint, major! McDowell is too old a soldier to risk a
+fight on the Potomac line--too far from his base, sir! He'll amuse
+Beauregard and Johnston while they sweep down on Magruder. I want _my_
+orders for Yorktown. Mark my words! What is it, adjutant?" The colonel
+talked on as he opened and read a paper the lieutenant handed
+him--"Hello! Adjutant, read that! Boys, I'm off for Manassas to-night.
+Turning my back on a fight, by ----!"
+
+Just then I felt a hand on my shoulder; and turning, saw my colonel
+with his round face--graver than usual--near mine. The thought of some
+devilish invention in the pudding line flashed across me, but his first
+word put cooks and dinners out of my mind.
+
+"The ball's open, egad!" he said seriously. "We whipped McDowell's
+advance at Bull Run to-day, sir! Drove 'em back, sir! Did you hear that
+_mustang_ colonel? Turning his back on a fight! Egad, he'll turn his
+stomach on it before the week's out!"
+
+It was true. How McDowell's right had essayed to cross at Blackburn's
+Ford; how Longstreet's Virginians and the Washington Artillery met
+them; and how, after a sharp fight, they retired and gave up the ford
+is too well known history to be repeated here.
+
+In an hour the news was public in Richmond and--though received with a
+deep, grave joy--braced every nerve and steadied every pulse in it.
+There was no distaste to face the _real_ danger when it showed itself;
+it was only the sickening suspense that was unbearable. No one in the
+city had really doubted the result, from the first; and the news from
+the prelude to the terrible and decisive fight, yet to come, but braced
+the people, as a stimulant may the fevered patient.
+
+The heavy pattering of the first drops had come, and the strained hush
+was broken.
+
+Beauregard telegraphed that the success of Bull Run was complete; that
+his men had borne their baptism of fire, with the steadiness of
+veterans; and that a few days--hours, perhaps--must bring the general
+assault upon his lines.
+
+He urged that every available man should be sent him; and within
+twenty-four hours from the receipt of his despatch, there was not a
+company left in Richmond that had arms to carry him.
+
+Surgeons were sent up; volunteer doctors applied by dozens for
+permission to go; ambulance trains were put upon the road, in readiness
+at a moment's warning. Baskets of delicacies and rare old wines and
+pure liquors; great bundles of bandages and lint, prepared by the
+daintiest fingers in the "Old Dominion;" cots, mattresses and
+pillows--all crowded in at the medical purveyor's. Then Richmond,
+having done all she could for the present, drew a deep breath and
+waited.
+
+But she waited not unhopefully!
+
+Every eye was strained to Manassas plains; every heart throbbed
+stronger at the mention of that name. All knew that there the giants
+were soon to clinch in deadly wrestle for the mastery; that the
+struggle was now at hand, when the flag of the South would be carried
+high in triumph or trampled in the dust!
+
+But no one doubted the true hearts and firm hands that had gathered
+there to uphold that banner!
+
+No one doubted that, though the best blood of the South might redden
+its folds, it would still float proudly over the field--consecrated,
+but unstained!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+AFTER MANASSAS.
+
+
+By noon on the 21st of July the quidnuncs found out that the President
+had left that morning, on a special train and with a volunteer staff,
+for Manassas. This set the whole tribe agog, and wonderful were the
+speculations and rumors that flew about. By night, certain news came
+that the battle had raged fiercely all day, and the sun had gone down
+on a complete, but bloody, victory. One universal thrill of joy went
+through the city, quickly stilled and followed by the gasp of agonized
+suspense. The dense crowds, collected about all probable points of
+information, were silent after the great roar of triumph went up at the
+first announcement. The mixed pressure of grave, voiceless thankfulness
+and strained anxiety, was too deep for words; and they stood
+still--expectant.
+
+By midnight the main result of the day's fight was known beyond a doubt;
+how the enemy, in heavy masses, had attacked the Confederate left, and
+hurled it back and around, entirely flanking it; how the raw troops had
+contested every inch of ground with stubborn valor, but still gave way
+until the change of front _had made itself;_ how the supports brought
+up from the right and center--where a force had to be maintained to
+face the masses threatening them--came only to meet fresh masses that
+they could only check, not break; how the battle was at one time really
+lost!
+
+When science had done all it could to retrieve the day, but the most
+obstinate even of the southern troops--after doing more than desperate
+courage and determined pluck could warrant--were breaking and giving
+way, then the wild yell of Elzey's brigade broke through the pines like
+a clarion! On came that devoted band, breathless and worn with their
+run from the railroad; eight hundred Marylanders--and only two
+companies of these with bayonets--leading the charge! On they came,
+their yells piercing the woods before they are yet visible; and, as if
+by magic, the tide of battle turned! The tired, worn ranks, all day
+battered by the ceaseless hail of death, catch that shout, and
+answering it, breast the storm again; regiment after regiment hears the
+yell, and echoes it with a wild swelling chorus! And ever on rush the
+fresh troops--past their weary brothers, into the hottest of the deadly
+rain of fire--wherever the blue coats are thickest! Their front lines
+waver--General Smith falls, but Elzey gains the crest of the
+plateau--like a fire in the prairie spreads the contagion of fear--line
+after line melts before the hot blast of that charge--a moment more and
+the "Grand Army" is mixed in a straining, struggling, chaotic mass in
+the race for life--the battle is won!
+
+I have heard the fight discussed by actors in it on both sides; have
+read accounts from northern penny a-liners, and English correspondents
+whose pay depended upon their neutrality; and all agree that the battle
+was saved by the advent of Kirby Smith, just at that critical moment
+when the numbers of the North were sweeping resistlessly over the
+broken and worn troops of the South. Elzey's brigade no doubt saved the
+day, for they created the panic.
+
+"But I look upon it as a most causeless one," once said an Austrian
+officer to me, "for had the Federals stood but half an hour
+longer--which, with their position and supports, there was no earthly
+reason for their not doing--there could have been but one result.
+Smith's forces could not have held their own that much longer against
+overwhelming numbers; and the weary troops who had been fighting all
+day could not even have supported them in a heavy fight. Had Smith
+reached the scene of action at morning instead of noon, he, too, might
+have shared the general fate, and a far different page of history been
+written. Coming as he did, I doubt not the battle turned upon his
+advent. The main difference I see," he added, "is that the Confederates
+were whipped for several hours and didn't know it; but just as the
+Federals found it out and were about to close their hands upon the
+victory already in their grasp, they were struck with a panic and ran
+away from it!"
+
+By midnight the anxious crowds in Richmond streets knew that the fight
+was over,
+
+    "And the red field was won!"
+
+But the first arrivals were ominous ones--splashed and muddy hospital
+stewards and quartermaster's men, who wanted more stretchers and
+instruments, more tourniquets and stimulants; and their stories threw a
+deeper gloom over the crowds that--collected at departments, hotels and
+depots--spoke in hushed whispers their words of solemn triumph, of
+hope, or of suspense. They told that almost every regiment had been
+badly cut up--that the slaughter of the best and bravest had been
+terrible--that the "Hampton Legion" was annihilated--Hampton himself
+killed--Beauregard was wounded--Kirby Smith killed--the first Virginia
+was cut to pieces and the Alabama troops swept from the face of the
+earth. These were some of the wild rumors they spread; eagerly caught
+up and echoed from mouth to mouth with a reliance on their truth to be
+expected from the morbid anxiety. No one reflected that these men must
+have left Manassas before the fighting was even hotly joined; and could
+only have gained their diluted intelligence from the rumors at
+way-stations. As yet the cant of camp followers was new to the people,
+who listened as though these terrible things must be true to be
+related.
+
+There was no sleep in Richmond that night. Men and women gathered in
+knots and huddled into groups on the corners and doorsteps, and the
+black shadow of some dreadful calamity seemed brooding over every
+rooftree. Each splashed and weary-looking man was stopped and
+surrounded by crowds, who poured varied and anxious questioning upon
+him. The weak treble of gray-haired old men besought news of son, or
+grandson; and on the edge of every group, pale, beseeching faces mutely
+pleaded with sad, tearless eyes, for tidings of brother, husband, or
+lover.
+
+But there was no despairing weakness, and every one went sadly but
+steadily to work to give what aid they might. Rare stores of old wines
+were freely given; baskets of cordials and rolls of lint were brought;
+and often that night, as the women leaned over the baskets they so
+carefully packed, bitter tears rolled from their pale cheeks and fell
+noiselessly on bandage and lint. For who could tell but that very piece
+of linen might bind the sore wound of one far dearer than life.
+
+Slowly the night wore on, trains coming in occasionally only to
+disappoint the crowds that rushed to surround them. No one came who had
+_seen_ the battle--all had _heard_ what they related. And though no man
+was base enough to play upon feelings such as theirs, the love of
+common natures for being oracles carried them away; and they repeated
+far more even than that. Next day the news was more full, and the
+details of the fight came in with some lists of the wounded. The
+victory was dearly bought. Bee, Bartow, Johnson, and others equally
+valuable, were dead. Some of the best and bravest from every state had
+sealed their devotion to the flag with their blood. Still, so immense
+were the consequences of the victory now judged to be, that even the
+wildest rumors of the day before had not told one half.
+
+At night the President returned; and on the train with him were the
+bodies of the dead generals, with their _garde d'honneur_. These
+proceeded to the Capitol, while Mr. Davis went to the Spotswood and
+addressed a vast crowd that had collected before it. He told them in
+simple, but glowing, language that the first blow for liberty had been
+struck and struck home; that the hosts of the North had been scattered
+like chaff before southern might and southern right; that the cause was
+just and must prevail. Then he spoke words of consolation to the
+stricken city. Many of her noblest were spared; the wounded had reaped
+a glory far beyond the scars they bore; the dead were honored far
+beyond the living, and future generations should twine the laurel for
+their crown.
+
+The great crowd listened with breathless interest to his lightest word.
+Old men, resting on their staves, erected themselves; reckless boys
+were quiet and still; and the pale faces of the women, furrowed with
+tears, looked up at him till the color came back to their cheeks and
+their eyes dried. Of a truth, he was still their idol. As yet they hung
+upon his lightest word, and believed that what he did was best.
+
+Then the crowd dispersed, many mournfully wending their way to the
+Capitol where the dead officers lay in state, wrapped in the flag of
+the new victory. An hour after, the rain descending in torrents, the
+first ambulance train arrived.
+
+First came forth the slightly wounded, with bandaged heads, arms in
+slings, or with painful limp.
+
+Then came ugly, narrow boxes of rough plank. These were tenderly
+handled, and the soldiers who bore them upon their shoulders carried
+sad faces, too; for happily as yet the death of friends in the South
+was not made, by familiarity, a thing of course. And lastly--lifted so
+gently, and suffering so patiently--came the ghastly burdens of the
+stretchers. Strong men, maimed and torn, their muscular hands straining
+the handles of the litter with the bitter effort to repress complaint,
+the horrid crimson ooze marking the rough cloths thrown over them;
+delicate, fair-browed boys, who had gone forth a few days back so full
+of life and hope, now gory and livid, with clenched teeth and matted
+hair, and eyeballs straining for the loved faces that must be there to
+wait them.
+
+It was a strange crowd that stood there in the driving storm, lit up by
+the fitful flashes of the moving lanterns.
+
+The whole city was there--the rich merchant--the rough laborer--the
+heavy features of the sturdy serving-woman--the dusky, but loving face
+of the negro--the delicate profile of the petted belle--all strained
+forward in the same intent gaze, as car after car was emptied of its
+ghastly freight. There, under the pitiless storm, they stood silent and
+still, careless of its fury--not a sound breaking the perfect hush, in
+which the measured tramp of the carriers, or the half-repressed groan
+of the wounded, sounded painfully distinct.
+
+Now and then, as a limping soldier was recognized, would come a rush
+and a cry of joy--strong arms were given to support him--tender hands
+were laid upon his hair--and warm lips were pressed to his blanched
+cheek, drenched with the storm.
+
+Here some wife, or sister, dropped bitter tears on the unconscious face
+of the household darling, as she walked by the stretcher where he
+writhed in fevered agony. There
+
+    "The shrill-edged shriek of the mother divided the shuddering
+    night,"
+
+as she threw herself prone on the rough pine box; or the wild, wordless
+wail of sudden widowhood was torn from the inmost heart of some
+stricken creature who had hoped in vain!
+
+There was a vague, unconscious feeling of joy in those who had found
+their darlings--even shattered and maimed; an unbearable and leaden
+weight of agonizing suspense and dread hung over those who could hear
+nothing. Many wandered restlessly about the Capitol, ever and anon
+questioning the guard around the dead generals; but the sturdy men of
+the Legion could only give kindly and vague answers that but heightened
+the feverish anxiety.
+
+Day after day the ambulance trains came in bearing their sad burdens,
+and the same scene was ever enacted. Strangers, miles from home, met
+the same care as the brothers and husbands of Richmond; and the meanest
+private was as much a hero as the tinseled officer.
+
+It is strange how soon even the gentlest natures gain a familiarity
+with suffering and death. The awfulness and solemnity of the
+unaccustomed sight loses rapidly by daily contact with it; even though
+the sentiments of sympathy and pity may not grow callous as well. But,
+as yet, Richmond was new to such scenes; and a shudder went through the
+whole social fabric at the shattering and tearing of the fair forms so
+well known and so dear.
+
+Gradually--very gradually--the echoes of the fight rolled into
+distance; the wildest wailing settled to the steady sob of suffering,
+and Richmond went her way, with only here and there a wreck of manhood,
+or pale-faced woman in deepest mourning, to recall the fever of that
+fearful night.
+
+Though the after effect of Manassas proved undoubtedly bad, the
+immediate fruits of the victory were of incalculable value. Panic-struck,
+the Federals had thrown away everything that could impede their flight.
+Besides fifty-four pieces of artillery of all kinds, horses and mules
+in large numbers, ammunition, medical stores and miles of wagon and
+ambulance trains, near six thousand stand of small arms, of the newest
+pattern and in best condition, fell into the hands of the half-armed
+rebels.
+
+These last were the real prize of the victors, putting a dozen new
+regiments waiting only for arms, at once on an effective war-footing.
+Blankets, tents and clothing were captured in bulk; nor were they to be
+despised by soldiers who had left home with knapsacks as empty as those
+of Falstaff's heroes.
+
+But the moral effect of the victory was to elate the tone of the army
+far above any previous act of the war. Already prepared not to
+undervalue their own prowess, its ease and completeness left a
+universal sense of their invincibility, till the feeling became common
+in the ranks--and spread thence to the people--that one southern man
+was worth a dozen Yankees; and that if they did not come in numbers
+greater than five to one, the result of any conflict was assured.
+
+Everything was going smoothly. The first rough outlines had been laid
+in, with bold effectiveness, a rosy cloud floated over the grim
+distance of the war; and in the foreground--only brilliant and
+victorious action.
+
+The Confederate loss, too, was much smaller than at first supposed, not
+exceeding eighteen hundred; and many of the slightly wounded began
+already to hobble about again, petted by the communities and justly
+proud of their crutches and scars. The Federal loss was harder to
+estimate. Many of their wounded had been borne away by the rush of the
+retreat; the Government, naturally anxious to calm the public mind of
+the North, made incomplete returns; while large numbers of uncounted
+dead had been buried on the field and along the line of retreat, both
+by the victorious army and country people. From the best data
+obtainable, their loss could not have been much short, if at all short,
+of five thousand. The army was satisfied, the country was satisfied,
+and, unfortunately, the Government was satisfied.
+
+Among the people there was a universal belief in an immediate advance.
+The army that had been the main bulwark of the National Capital was
+rushing--a panic-stricken herd--into and beyond it; the fortifications
+were perfectly uncovered and their small garrisons utterly demoralized
+by the woe-begone and terrified fugitives constantly streaming by them.
+The triumphant legions of the South were almost near enough for their
+battle-cry to be heard in the Cabinet; and the southern people could
+not believe that the bright victory that had perched upon their banners
+would be allowed to fold her wings before another and bloodier flight,
+that would leave the North prostrate at her feet. Day after day they
+waited and--the wish being father to the thought--day after day the sun
+rose on fresh stories of an advance--a bloody fight--a splendid
+victory--or the capture of Washington. But the sun always set on an
+authoritative contradiction of them; and at last the excitement was
+forced to settle down on the news that General Johnston had extended
+his pickets as far as Mason's and Munson's hills, and the army had gone
+into camp on the field it had so bloodily won the week before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE SPAWN OF LETHARGY.
+
+
+Considering the surroundings, it seems inevitable that the lull after
+the first great victory should have been followed by reaction, all over
+the South; and that reasons--as ridiculous as they were numerous--should
+have been assigned for inaction that appeared so unwarranted.
+
+Discontent--at first whispered, and coming as the wind cometh--gradually
+took tongue; and discussion of the situation grew loud and varied. One
+side declared that the orders for a general advance had been already
+given, when the President countermanded them upon the field, and sent
+orders by General Bonham to withdraw the pursuit. Another version of
+this reason was that there had been a council of the generals and Mr.
+Davis, at which it was agreed that the North must now be convinced of
+the utter futility of persisting in invasion; and that in the reaction
+her conservative men would make themselves heard; whereas the
+occupation of Washington would inflame the North and cause the people
+to rise as one man for the defense of their capital. An even wilder
+theory found believers; that the war in the South was simply one of
+defense, and crossing the Potomac would be _invasion_, the effect of
+which would retard recognition from abroad. Another again declared that
+there was a jealousy between Generals Johnston and Beauregard, and
+between each of them and the President, that prevented concert of
+action.
+
+The people of the South were eminently democratic and had their own
+views--which they expressed with energy and vim--on all subjects during
+the war; so these theories, to account for the paralysis after
+Manassas, were each in turn discussed, and each found warm defenders.
+But gradually it came to be generally conceded that none of them could
+be the true one. The President took no command on his visit to
+Manassas, for he reached the field only after the battle had been won
+and the flight commenced. Any suggestions that occurred to him were
+naturally made to General Johnston. There is good authority for stating
+that he did not make any criticism on one material point, stating to
+both generals that the whole plan, conduct and result of the battle met
+his fullest approval; and on reflection the whole people felt that
+their chief was too much a soldier to have committed the gross breach
+of discipline indicated. The story of the council came to be regarded
+as a silly fabrication. The fear of inflaming the North, coming on the
+heels of a complete and bloody victory, was about as funny as for a
+pugilist whose antagonist's head was "in chancery" to cease striking
+lest he should anger him; and events immediately following Manassas
+showed there could be little jealousy or pique between the generals, or
+between them and the President. General Johnston, with the magnanimity
+of the true knight his whole career has shown him to be, declared that
+the credit of the plan and choice of the field of battle was due to
+General Beauregard; and Mr. Davis' proclamation on the success was
+couched in language that breathed only the most honest commendation of
+both generals and of their strategy. The fear of invasion prejudicing
+opinion abroad was as little believed as the other stories, for--outside
+of a small clique--there grew up at this time all over the South such a
+perfect confidence in its strength and its perfect ability to work its
+own oracle, that very little care was felt for the action of Europe. In
+fact, the people were just now quite willing to wait for recognition of
+their independence by European powers, until it was already achieved.
+So, gradually the public mind settled down to the true reasons that
+mainly prevented the _immediate_ following up of the victory.
+
+A battle under all circumstances is a great confusion. With raw troops,
+who had never before been under fire, and who had been all day fiercely
+contending, until broken and disordered, the confusion must necessarily
+have been universal. As they broke, or fell back, brigade overlapped
+brigade, company mixed with company, and officers lost their regiments.
+The face of the country, covered with thick underbrush, added to this
+result; so that when the enemy broke and the rout commenced, it was
+hard to tell whether pursuers or pursued were the most disorganized
+mass. The army of Manassas was almost entirely undisciplined, and had
+never before felt the intoxication of battle. On that terrible day it
+had fought with tenacity and pluck that belonged to the race; but it
+had largely been on the principle prevalent at weddings in the "ould
+country"--when you see a head, hit it! The few officers who desired a
+disciplined resistance soon saw the futility of obtaining it, and felt
+that as the men, individually, were fighting bravely and stubbornly, it
+were better only to hold them to that. When the pursuit came, the men
+were utterly worn and exhausted; but, burning with the glow of battle,
+they followed the flying masses fast and far--each one led by his own
+instincts and rarely twenty of a company together.
+
+A major-general, who left his leg on a later field, carried his company
+into this fight. During the pursuit he led it through a by-path to
+intercept a battery spurring down the road at full speed. They overtook
+it, mastered the gunners and turned the horses out of the press. In the
+deepening twilight, he turned to thank the company, and found it
+composed of three of his own men, two "Tiger Rifles," a Washington
+artilleryman, three dismounted cavalry of the "Legion," a doctor, a
+quartermaster's clerk, and the Rev. Chaplain of the First ----!
+
+This was but a specimen of the style of the pursuit. There was but
+little cavalry--one regiment under Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart and a few
+single companies. No one brigade could be collected in anything like
+order; night was deepening and the enemy's flight was approaching what
+was reasonably supposed to be his reserve. Under these circumstances it
+was apparent that prudence, if not necessity, dictated calling in the
+pursuit by the disordered troops. General Bonham--the ranking officer
+in front--saw this plainly; and on his own authority gave the order
+that appeared most proper to him. I never heard that, _at this time_,
+it was objected to by his superior officers.
+
+Moreover, it was not only the demoralization caused by the pursuit
+that was sufficient reason for not following up Manassas. The army,
+ordinarily, was not in a condition to advance into an enemy's country,
+away from its regular communications. In the first place, there was no
+transportation, and the arms were bad. It was a work of time to utilize
+the spoils; to distribute arms where most needed; to put the captured
+batteries in condition for use; and to replace with the splendid
+ambulances and army wagons, that had been prepared for the holiday
+march to Richmond, the hastily and clumsily-constructed ones already in
+use; and to so give out the captured horses as best to utilize them.
+This latter was of the utmost moment before an advance could be
+attempted. The Confederates were shorter of transportation--even of
+defective character--than of anything else; and for days after the
+fight the flood-gates of heaven seemed to stand open, to deluge the
+country around Manassas until it became a perfect lake of mud. Roads
+already bad were washed into gullies; holes generally knee-deep became
+impassable. It is perfectly easy, therefore, to understand why, for a
+week after the battle, delay was necessary; but as week after week
+passed, and there was still no forward movement, it ceased to be
+strange that the people should murmur, and ask why it was the army was
+satisfied with laurels easily won when fresh ones were within its
+grasp. All felt that veteran officers handling raw troops had to be
+more careful in their management, and to count more closely before
+putting them into the new and dangerous position of an invading army,
+than would meet with the concurrence of a populace naturally ardent and
+doubly heated by triumph.
+
+But it is equally true that for ten days after the battle, Washington
+lay perfectly at the mercy of the South; and by that time the army of
+Manassas was in better condition than could be expected later; and it
+was anxious to move forward.
+
+But the auspicious moment was not seized; time was given for the broken
+fragments of the Union army to be patched again into something like
+organization. Fresh forts and earthworks were hastily thrown up; a
+perfect chain of defenses formed around Washington, and strongly
+garrisoned. The pickets of the opposing armies were near enough to
+exchange constant shots, and even occasional "chaff."
+
+Still there was no movement; the summer wore away in utter inactivity.
+The camp at Orange Courthouse began to be looked upon as a stationary
+affair; while the usual difficulties of camp life--aggravated by the
+newness of the troops and the natural indisposition of the southron to
+receive discipline--began to show themselves. The army at this time was
+principally composed of the better educated and better conditioned class,
+who were the first to volunteer; and as I have already said, many of
+the privates were men of high position, culture and wealth. Thus
+composed, it was equal to great deeds of gallantry and dash. _Elan_ was
+its characteristic--but it was hard to reduce to the stratified regularity
+of an army. Napier has laid down as an axiom that no man is a good
+soldier until he has become a perfect machine. He must neither reason
+nor think--only obey. Critics, perhaps equally competent, in reviewing
+the Crimean war, differ from this and declare the main advantage of the
+French troops over the Russian was a certain individuality--a pride in
+themselves and their army that had been entirely drilled out of their
+stolid adversaries. Be this as it may, the _esprit de corps_ of the
+Frenchman was in his corps only as such; and he would no more have
+discussed the wisdom, or prudence of any order--even in his own
+mind--than he would have thought of disobeying it.
+
+The steady-going professional men who sprung to arms throughout the
+South could face a deadly fire, without blenching, for hours; but they
+could not help reasoning, with nothing to do for twenty hours out of
+every twenty-four.
+
+The gay young graduates of the promenade and ball-room could march
+steadily, even gaily, into the fiery belching of a battery, but they
+could not learn the practice of unreasoning blindness; and the staunch,
+hard-fisted countryman felt there was no use in it--the thing was over
+if the fighting was done--and this was a waste of time. _Nostalgia_--that
+scourge of camps--began to creep among the latter class; discontent
+grew apace among the former. Still the camp was the great object of
+interest for miles around; there were reviews, parades and division
+dinners; ladies visited and inspected it, and some even lived within
+its lines; but the tone of the army went down gradually, but steadily.
+During the summer more than one of Beauregard's companies--though of
+the best material and with a brilliant record--had to be mustered out
+as "useless and insubordinate." Excellence in drill and attention to
+duty both decreased; and it was felt by competent judges that rust was
+gradually eating away the fabric of the army. This was certainly the
+fault to a great extent of the officers, though it may, in part, have
+been due to the men themselves. In the beginning these had tried
+honestly to choose those among them best fitted for command; but like
+all volunteers, they fell into the grave error of choosing the most
+popular. Almost all candidates for office were equally eligible and
+equally untried; so personal considerations naturally came into play.
+Once elected, they did their duty faithfully, in the field; but were
+either too weak, or too inexperienced, to keep the strict rules of
+discipline applied during the trying inactivity of camp; and they were
+too conscious of the social and mental equality of their men to enforce
+the distinction between officer and private, without which the command
+loses half its weight. In some instances, too, the desire for
+popularity and for future advancement at the hands of friends and
+neighbors introduced a spirit of demagogism hurtful in the extreme.
+
+For these combined reasons the army of Manassas, which a few weeks
+before had gone so gaily "into the jaws of death," began rapidly to
+mildew through warp and woof; and the whole texture seemed on the point
+of giving way.
+
+Thoughtful men--who had waited calmly and coolly when the first burst
+of impatience had gone up--began now to ask why and how long this
+lethargy was to continue. They saw its bad effects, but believed that
+at the next blast of the bugle every man would shake off the incubus
+and rise in his might a patriot soldier; they saw the steady stream of
+men from North and West pouring into Washington, to be at once bound
+and held with iron bands of discipline--the vast preparation in men,
+equipments, supplies and science that the North was using the precious
+days granted her to get in readiness for the next shock. But they felt
+confident that the southern army--if not allowed to rust too
+long--would again vindicate the name it had won at Manassas.
+
+These thinkers saw that some branches of the Government still kept up
+its preparations. Throughout the length of the land foundries were
+going up, and every improvement that science or experience could
+suggest was making in the construction of arms and ammunition;
+water-power, everywhere off the line of attack, was utilized for
+powder-mills and rope-walks; every cloth factory in the country was
+subsidized; and machinery of great variety and power was being imported
+on Government account. Over Richmond constantly hung a dense cloud of
+coal smoke; and the incessant buzz of machinery from factories,
+foundries and lathes, told of increased rather than abated effort in
+that branch of the Government. Then, too, the most perfect confidence
+was felt in the great strategic ability of General Johnston--who had
+already found that high level in the opinion of his countrymen, from
+which neither the frowns of government, the combination of cliques, nor
+the tongues of slanderers could afterward remove him.
+
+They believed, too, in the pluck and dash of Beauregard; and, combining
+this with the outside activity, evident in every direction, felt there
+must be good and sufficient reason for the--to them--inexplicable quiet
+about the Potomac.
+
+But perhaps the very worst feature was the effect of the victory upon
+the tone of the people at large. The very tongues that had wagged most
+impatiently at the first delay--that had set in motion the wild stories
+by which to account for it--had been the first to become blatant that
+the North was conquered. The minutest details of the fight were carried
+over the land, repeated at country courts and amplified at bar-room
+assemblages, until the common slang was everywhere heard that one
+Southron was equal to a dozen Yanks. Instead of using the time, so
+strangely given by the Government, in making earnest and steady strides
+toward increasing the army, improving its _morale_ and adding to its
+supplies, the masses of the country were upon a rampage of boastfulness,
+and the notes of an inflated triumph rang from the Potomac to the Gulf.
+
+In this regard the effect of the victory was most injurious; and had it
+not been for the crushing results--from a strategic point of view--that
+would have followed it, partial defeat might have proved a blessing in
+its place.
+
+The one, while it threw a gloom over the country, would have nerved the
+people to renewed exertion and made them look steadily and unwaveringly
+at the true dangers that threatened them. The other gave them time to
+fold their hands and indulge in a complacency, ridiculous as it was
+enervating.
+
+They ceased to realize the vast resources of the Union in men, money
+and supplies; and more than all, they underrated the dogged
+perseverance of Yankee character. It was as though a young boxer, in a
+deadly conflict with a giant, had dealt a staggering blow; and while
+the Titan braced his every muscle for a deadlier gripe, the weaker
+antagonist wasted his time lauding his strength and feeling his biceps.
+
+Meantime, the keen, hard sense of the Washington Government wasted no
+time in utilizing the reaction on its people. The press and the public
+clamored for a victim, and General Scott was thrown into its maw
+unhesitatingly. The old hero was replaced by the new, and General
+McClellan--whose untried and inexperienced talent could hardly have
+augured his becoming, as he did, the best general of the northern
+army--was elevated to his place to please the "dear public."
+
+The rabid crowds of men and men-women--whose prurient curiosity had
+driven them to follow the great on-to-Richmond, with hopes of a first
+view of the triumphant entry of the Grand Army--soon forgot their
+uncomfortable and terrified scramble to the rear. They easily changed
+their whine of terror to a song of triumph; and New England Judiths,
+burning to grasp the hair of the Holofernes over the Potomac, pricked
+the flagging zeal of their male companions.
+
+The peculiar error that they were fighting for the Union and the
+flag--so cruelly dissipated of late--threw thousands into the ranks;
+heavy bounties and hopes of plunder drew many more; and the still
+frequent interstices were filled with many an Irish-German amalgam,
+that was supposed to be peculiarly good food for powder.
+
+And so the summer wore on, the demoralizing influence of the inaction
+in the camps of the South increasing toward its close. The affair at
+Leesburg, occurring on the 20th of October, was another brilliant
+success, but equally barren of results. It showed that the men would
+still fight as readily and as fiercely, and that their officers would
+lead them as gallantly, as before; it put a few hundred of the enemy
+_hors de combat_ and maintained "the right of way" by the river to the
+South. But it was the occasion for another shout of triumph--perfectly
+incommensurate with its importance--to go up from the people; and it
+taught them still more to despise and underrate the power of the
+government they had so far successfully and brilliantly defied.
+
+Elsewhere than on the Potomac line, the case had been a little
+different. Magruder, on the Peninsula, had gained no success of note. A
+few unimportant skirmishes had taken place and the Confederate lines
+had been contracted--more from choice than necessity. But the combatants
+were near enough--and respected each other enough--for constant
+watchfulness to be considered necessary; and, though the _personnel_ of
+the army was, perhaps, not as good as that of the Potomac, in the main
+its condition was better.
+
+At Norfolk nothing had been done but to strengthen the defenses.
+General Huger had striven to keep his men employed; and they, at least,
+did not despise the enemy that frowned at them from Fort Monroe, and
+frequently sent messages of compliment into their camps from the lips
+of the "Sawyer gun." The echo of the paeans from Manassas came back to
+them, but softened by distance and tempered by their own experience--or
+want of it.
+
+In Western Virginia there had been a dull, eventless campaign, of
+strategy rather than action. General Wise had taken command on the
+first of June, and early in August had been followed by General John B.
+Floyd--the ex-U.S. Secretary of War.
+
+These two commanders unfortunately disagreed as to means and conduct of
+the campaign; and General R. E. Lee was sent to take general command on
+this--his first theater of active service. His management of the
+campaign was much criticised in many quarters; and the public verdict
+seemed to be that, though he had an army of twenty thousand men, tolerably
+equipped and familiar with the country, Rosecrans out-manoeuvered him
+and accomplished his object in amusing so considerable a Confederate
+force. Certain it is that, after fronting Lee at Big Sewell for ten or
+twelve days, he suddenly withdrew in the night, without giving the
+former even a chance for a fight.
+
+The dissatisfaction was universal and outspoken; nor was it relieved by
+the several brilliant episodes of Gauley and Cotton Hill, that General
+Floyd managed to throw into his dark surroundings.
+
+It is hard to tell how much foundation the press and the public had for
+this opinion. There had been no decisive disaster, if there had been no
+actual gain; and the main result had been to maim men and show that
+both sides would fight well enough to leave all collisions matters of
+doubt.
+
+It may not here be out of place to correct a false impression that has
+crept into the history of the times regarding General Floyd. The
+courteous press of the North--and not a few political enemies who felt
+safety in their distance from him--constantly branded him as "traitor"
+and "thief." They averred that he had misused his position and betrayed
+the confidence reposed in him as U.S. Secretary of War, to send
+government arms into the South in view of the approaching need for
+them. Even General Scott--whose position must have given him the means
+of knowing better--reiterates these calumnies, the falsity of which the
+least investigation exposed at once.
+
+Mr. Buchanan, in his late book, completely exonerates General Floyd
+from this charge; and the committee to whom it was referred reported
+that of 10,151 rifles distributed by him in 1860, the Southern and
+South-Western states received only 2,849!
+
+Followed by the hate of one government to receive the coldness of the
+other, John B. Floyd still strove with all his strength for the cause
+he loved.
+
+"After life's fitful fever he sleeps well"
+
+in his dear Virginia soil; and whatever his faults--whatever his
+errors--no honest man, North or South, but must rejoice that his
+enemies even acquitted him of this one.
+
+Then the results elsewhere had not been very encouraging when compared
+with the eastern campaign; though Sterling Price had managed to more
+than hold his own against all obstacles, and Jeff Thompson had been
+doing great things with little means in south-western Missouri.
+
+Still, since Rich Mountain, no serious disaster had befallen
+Confederate arms, and the people were fain to be satisfied.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+FROM COURT TO CAMP.
+
+
+The winter of '61-2 set in early, with heavy and continued rains. By
+Christmas the whole surface of the country had been more than once
+wrapped in heavy snow, leaving lakes of mud over which no wheeled thing
+could work its way.
+
+Active operations--along the whole northern frontier at least--were
+certainly suspended until spring; and both armies had gone into winter
+quarters. Military men agree that a winter in camp is the most
+demoralizing influence to which any troops can be subjected. To the new
+soldiers of the South it was a terrible ordeal--not so much from the
+actual privations they were called upon to endure as from other and
+more subtle difficulties, against the imperceptible approaches of which
+they could not guard. The Government had used every effort to make the
+men comfortable, and to supply them with all necessaries at its
+disposal; but still there were numerous articles it could not command.
+
+The good caterers at home spared no pains, no exercise of ingenuity,
+and no pinching from fireside supplies, to make the loved ones in camp
+comfortable. The country had not begun to feel the effects of actual
+want in any quarter; but increased demand had lessened supplies on hand
+and somewhat enhanced prices; so the men were comfortably clothed, fed
+with plain, but plentiful and wholesome food, and supplied with all the
+absolute necessaries of camp life. In addition to these, boxes of all
+sizes, shapes and contents came into the camps in a continuous stream;
+and the thousand nameless trifles--so precious because bearing the
+impress of home--were received daily in every mess from the Rio Grande
+to the Potomac. Still, as the winter wore on, news from the armies
+became gloomier and gloomier, and each successive bulletin bore more
+dispiriting accounts of discontent and privation, sickness and death.
+Men who had gone into their first fight freely and gaily; who had heard
+the whistling of bullets as if it had been accustomed music, gave way
+utterly before the unseen foes of "winter quarters."
+
+Here and there, a disciplinarian of the better sort--who combined
+philosophy with strictness--kept his men in rather better condition by
+constant watching, frequent and regular drills, rapid marches for
+exercise, and occasional change of camp. But this was the exception,
+and the general tone was miserable and gloomy. This could in part be
+accounted for by the inexperience of the men, and of their immediate
+commanders--the company officers--in whose hands their health and
+spirits were in no small degree reposed. They could not be brought to
+the use of those little appliances of comfort that camp life, even in
+the most unfavorable circumstances, can afford--strict attention to the
+utmost cleanliness in their persons and huts; care in the preparation
+of their food, and in its cookery; and careful adherence to the simple
+hygienic rules laid down in constant circulars from the medical and
+other departments. Where men live and sleep in semi-frozen mud, and
+breathe an atmosphere of mist and brush smoke--and every one knows the
+wonderfully penetrating power of camp-fire smoke--it is not to be
+expected that their comfort is enviably great; especially where they
+have left comfortable homes, and changed their well-prepared, if
+simple, food for the hard and innutritious army ration. But such
+creatures of habit are we that, after a little, we manage by proper
+care to make even that endurable.
+
+Soldiers are like children, and require careful watching and constant
+reminding that these small matters--which certainly make up the sum of
+camp life--should be carefully attended to for their own good. Rigid
+discipline in their enforcement is necessary in the beginning to get
+novices properly started in the grooves. Once set going, they soon
+become matters of course. But once let soldiers get accustomed to
+careless and slovenly habits, and no amount of orders, or punishment,
+can undo the mischief. Unfortunately, the armies of the South began
+wrong this first winter, and the descent was easy; and they made the
+new road upon which they had entered far harder than necessary, by
+neglecting landmarks so plainly written that he who runs may read.
+_Nostalgia_--that scourge of camps--appeared in stubborn and alarming
+form; and no exertion of surgeon, or general, served to check or
+decrease it. Men, collected from cities, accustomed to stated hours of
+business and recreation, and whose minds were accustomed to some
+exercise and excitement, naturally drooped in the monotony of a camp
+knee in mire, where the only change from the camp-fire--with stew-pan
+simmering on it and long yarns spinning around it--was heavy sleep in a
+damp hut, or close tent, wrapped in a musty blanket and lulled by the
+snoring of half a dozen comrades.
+
+Hale, sturdy countrymen, accustomed to regular exercise and hard work,
+with nothing to do all day but sun themselves and polish their
+bayonets, naturally moped and pined for the homes that were missing
+them so sorely. They, too, found the smoky blaze of the camp-fire but a
+sorry substitute for the cheerful hearth, where memory pictured the
+comely wife and the sturdy little ones. The hardy mountaineer, pent and
+confined to a mud-bound acre, naturally molded and panted for the fresh
+breezes and rough tramps of his far-away "roost."
+
+The general morality of the camps was good, but praying is a sorry
+substitute for dry homes and good food; and, though chaplains were
+earnest and zealous, the men gradually found cards more exciting than
+exhortations. They turned from the "wine of life" to the canteen of
+"new dip" with a spiteful thirst. There were attempts by the higher
+officers--which proved abortive--to discountenance gambling; and the
+most stringent efforts of provost-marshals to prevent the introduction
+of liquor to camp reduced the quantity somewhat, but brought down the
+quality to the grade of a not very slow poison.
+
+Being much in the numerous camps that winter, I was struck with the
+universal slouch and depression in ranks where the custom had been
+quick energy and cheerful faces. Through the whole army was that
+enervating moldiness, lightened only by an occasional gleam from those
+"crack companies" so much doubted in the beginning of the war.
+
+It had been thought that the gay young men of cities, used to the
+sedentary life of profession, or counting-room--and perhaps to the
+irregularities of the midnight dinner and next-morning ball--that these
+men, steady and unflinching as they might be under fire--and willing as
+they seemed to undertake "what man dare" in danger or privation, would
+certainly break down under the fatigues of the first campaign.
+
+They had, on the contrary, in every instance that came under my ken,
+gone through that campaign most honorably; had borne the marches, the
+most trying weather and the greatest straits of hunger, with an
+elasticity of mind and muscle that had long since astounded and
+silenced their most active scoffers. Now, in the bitter depths of
+winter, they went through the dull routine of camp, cheerful and
+buoyant, at all times ready for their duty, and never grumbling at the
+wearing strain they felt to be necessity. When I say that in every
+Confederate camp _the best_ soldiers of that winter were "crack
+companies" of the gay youths of the cities, I only echo the verdict of
+old and tried officers. Where all did their duty nobly, comparison were
+invidious; but the names of "Company F," the Mobile Cadets, the
+Richmond Blues, and Washington Artillery, stand on the record of those
+dark days as proof of the statement. Many men from the ranks of these
+companies had already been promoted to high positions, but they had not
+yet lost their distinctive characteristics as _corps d' elite_; and
+admission to their ranks was as eagerly sought as ever. A strange fact
+of these companies was frequently stated by surgeons of perfect
+reliability: their sick reports were much smaller than those of the
+hardiest mountain organizations. This they attributed to two causes:
+greater attention to personal cleanliness and to all hygienic
+precautions; and the exercise of better trained minds and wills keeping
+them free from the deadly "blue devils." Numbers of them, of course,
+broke down at once. Many a poor fellow who would have achieved a
+brilliant future perished mid the mud of Manassas, or slept under the
+snowy slopes of the western mountains. The practice was kill or cure,
+but it was in a vast majority of cases, the latter; and men who stood
+the hardship thrived upon it.
+
+The Marylanders, too, were a marvel of patience. Self-made exiles, not
+only from the accustomed comforts of home, but cut off from
+communication with their absent ones and harrowed by vague stones of
+wrong and violence about them--it would have been natural had they
+yielded to the combined strain on mind and matter. At midwinter I had
+occasion to visit Evansport and Acquia creek. It had been bitter cold;
+a sudden thaw had made the air raw and keen, while my horse went to his
+girths at every plunge. More than once I had to dismount in mire
+girth-deep to help him on. Suddenly I came upon a Maryland camp--supports
+to a battery. Some of the soldiers I had known as the gayest and most
+petted of ball-room and club; and now they were cutting wood and frying
+bacon, as if they had never done anything else. Hands that never before
+felt an ax-helve plied it now as if for life; eyes that were accustomed
+to look softly into
+
+    "The sweetest eyes that ever were,"
+
+in the pauses of a waltz, now peered curiously in the reeking stew-pan.
+Many of their names recalled the history of days long gone, for their
+father's fathers had moved in stately pageant down its brightest pages;
+and blood flowed in their veins blue as the proudest of earth's
+nobility. They had left affluence, luxury, the caresses of home--and,
+harder than all, the habits of society--for what?
+
+Was it thoughtlessly to rush foremost in the delirious shock of
+battle; to carelessly stand unflinchingly where the wing of death
+flapped darkest over the glare of the fight; to stand knee-deep in
+Virginia mud, with high boots and rough shirts, and fry moldy bacon
+over fires of wet brush? Or was it that the old current in their
+veins bounded hotly when they believed a wrong was doing; that all
+else--home--luxury--love--life!--faded away before the might of
+principle?
+
+It was an odd meeting with the crowd that collected about me and
+anxiously asked the news from Richmond, from abroad, but above all,
+from home. Bronzed and bearded, their huge boots caked with Potomac mud
+and rough shirts open at their sunburnt throats; chapped hands and
+faces grimy with smoke and work, there was yet something about these
+men that spoke them, at a glance, raised above the herd. John Leech,
+who so reveled in the "Camps at Cobham," would here have found a
+companion-piece for the opposition of the picture.
+
+"Hello, old boy! any news from home?" yelled a whiskered sergeant,
+jumping from a log where he was mending a rent in his pants, and giving
+me a hand the color of his favorite tan gloves in days lang
+syne--"Pretty tight work up here, you see, but we manage to keep
+comfortable!"--God save the mark!
+
+"What do you think Bendann would give for a negative of me?" asked a
+splendid fellow leaning on an ax, the rapid strokes of which he stilled
+at my approach--"Not a half bad thing for a fancy ball, eh?" Charles
+street had no nattier man than the speaker in days gone; and the
+tailors had found him their pearl beyond price. But Hilberg's best was
+now replaced by a flannel shirt with many a rent, army pants and a
+jacket that had been gray, before mud and smoke had brought it near the
+unity of Joseph's best garment.
+
+"I'd show well at the club--portrait of a gentleman?" he added lightly.
+
+"Pshaw! Look at _me_! There's a boot for a junior assembly! Wouldn't
+that make a show on a waxed floor?" and little Charley H. grinned all
+the way across his fresh, fair face, as he extended a foot protruding
+from what had been a boot.
+
+"D----l take your dress! Peel those onions, Charley!" cried a baldheaded
+man from the fire--"Don't your heart rise at the scent of this _olla_,
+my boy? Don't it bring back our dinners at the Spanish legation? Stay
+and dine with us--if Charley ever has those onions done--and you'll
+feast like a lord-mayor! By the way, last letters from home tell me
+that Miss Belle's engaged to John Smith. You remember her that night at
+Mrs. R.'s fancy ball?"
+
+"Wouldn't mind having a bottle of Mrs. R.'s sherry now to tone up these
+onions," Charley said ruefully. "It _would_ go well with that stew, taken
+out of a tin cup--eh, cookey?"
+
+"We had lots better at the club," the cook said, thoughtfully stirring
+the mess on the fire--"It was laid in before you were born, Charley.
+Those were days, boys--but we'll drink many a bottle of it yet under
+the stars and bars!"
+
+"That we will, old man! and I'll carry these boots to a junior assembly
+yet. But I _would_ like a bottle of old Mrs. R.'s to drink now, _faute
+de mieux_, to the health of the Baltimore girls--God bless 'em!"
+
+"That I would, too," said the sergeant. "But that's the hard part of
+it!"--and he stuck his needle viciously through the pants--"I always
+get savage when I think of our dear women left unpro----"
+
+"No particular one, sergeant? You don't mean Miss Mamie on Charles
+street, do you? Insatiate archer!" cried Charley.
+
+"Do your cooking, you imp! I mean my dear old mother and my sick
+sister. D----n this smoke! It will get in a fellow's eyes!"
+
+When Miss Todd gave her picnic in the valley of Jehoshaphat and talked
+London gossip under the olives, it was an odd picture; it is strange to
+see the irrepressible English riding hurdles in the Campagna, and
+talking of ratting in the shadow of the Parthenon, as though within the
+beloved chimes of Bow; but it was stranger still to see those
+roughened, grimed men, with soleless boots and pants tattered "as if an
+imp had worn them," rolling out town-talk and well-known names in such
+perfectly natural manner.
+
+And this was only a slice from any camp in the service. The gentlemen
+troops stood hardships better, and bore their troubles and difficulties
+with lighter hearts, than any of the mixed corps. It is true that few
+of them were left as organizations at the end of the war.
+
+As the army increased, men of ability and education naturally sifted to
+higher place; but they wore their spurs after they had won them. They
+got their commissions when they had been through the baptism of blood
+and fire, and of mud and drudgery as well. They never flinched. The
+dreariest march--the shortest rations--the deepest snow and the
+midnight "long roll"--found them ready and willing. History furnishes
+no parallel. The bloods of the cavalier wars rode hard and fought
+long. They went to the battle with the jest upon their lips, and
+walked gaily to the scaffold if need be. But they not only died as
+gentlemen--they lived as they died. Their perfumed locks were never
+draggled in the mire of the camp, and their silken hose never smirched
+but in the fray. Light songs from dainty lips and brimming goblets
+from choice _flacons_ were theirs; and they could be merry to-night if
+they died to-morrow.
+
+The long rapiers of the Regency flashed as keen in the smoke of the
+fight as the jest had lately rung in the mistress' bower; and how the
+_blase_ club man and the lisping dandy of Rotten Row could change to
+the avenging war god, the annals of the "Light Brigade" can tell.
+
+But these lived as gentlemen. In the blackest hour, when none believed
+"the king should have his own again;" in the deadliest fray and in the
+snow-bound trench, _they_ waved the sword of command, and the only
+equality they had with their men was who should fight the furthest.
+
+But here were gentlemen born--men of worth and wealth, education and
+fashion--delving side by side with the veriest drudge; fighting as only
+gentlemen can fight, and then working as gentlemen never worked before!
+
+Delicately bred youths who had never known rougher work than the _deux
+temps_, now trudged through blinding snows on post, or slept in
+blankets stiff with freezing mud; hands that had felt nothing harder
+than billiard-cue or cricket-bat now wielded ax and shovel as men never
+wielded them for wages; the epicure of the club mixed a steaming stew
+of rank bacon and moldy hard-tack and then--ate it!
+
+And all this they did without a murmur, showing an example of steadfast
+resolution and unyielding pluck to the hardier and tougher soldiers by
+them; writing on the darkest page of history the clear axiom: _Bon
+sang ne peut mentir!_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+SOCIETY AT THE CAPITAL.
+
+
+But while everything was dull and lifeless in the camps of the South, a
+far different aspect was presented by its Capital. There was a stir and
+bustle new to quiet Richmond. Congress had brought crowds of attaches
+and hangers-on; and every department had its scores of dependents.
+Officers from all quarters came in crowds to spend a short furlough, or
+to attend to some points of interest to their commands before the
+bureaux of the War Department. The full hotels showed activity and life
+unknown to them. Business houses, attracted by the increased demands of
+trade and the new channels opened by Government necessities, sprang up
+on all sides; and the stores--though cramped by the blockade--began to
+brush off their dust and show their best for the new customers. Every
+branch of industry seemed to receive fresh impetus; and houses that had
+for years plodded on in moldy obscurity shot, with the rapidity of
+Jonah's gourd, up to first-class business.
+
+The streets presented a scene of unwonted activity; and Franklin
+street--the promenade _par excellence_, vied with "the avenue" in
+the character and variety of the crowds that thronged its pavement. The
+majority of the promenaders were officers, their uniforms contrasting
+brightly with the more quiet dresses around. While many of them were
+strangers, and the peculiarities of every State showed in the faces
+that passed in rapid panorama, yet numbers of "Richmond boys" came back
+for a short holiday; almost every one bringing his laurels and his
+commission.
+
+My friend, Wyatt, had kept his laughing promise, and showed me a
+captain's bars. General Breckinridge had found him hiding in the ranks,
+and had added A.A.G. to his title.
+
+"Knew it, old man!" was his comment--"Virtue must be rewarded--merit,
+like water, will find its level. Captain Wyatt, A.A.G.--demnition neat,
+eh? Now, I'll be here a month, and we must do something in the social
+line. I find the women still industry mad; but the sewing-circles get
+up small _dullabilities_--'danceable teas,' as papa Dodd abroad calls
+them. They're not splendid to a used-up man, like you--not Paris nor
+yet Washington, but they'll show you our people."
+
+And Wyatt was right. The people of Richmond had at first held up their
+hands in holy horror at the mere mention of amusement! What! with a war
+in the land must people enjoy themselves? Never! it would be heartless!
+
+But human nature in Virginia is pretty much like human nature
+everywhere else; and bad as the war was, people gradually got used to
+"the situation." They had lost friends--a relation or two was pretty
+badly marked perhaps--but what glory the tens and hundreds left had
+gained! There was no fighting now; and the poor fellows in camp would
+be only too glad to know that their brothers-in-arms were being paid
+for their toils by the smiles of the fair. The great majority of the
+strangers, too, were young men who had been recommended to the mercy of
+the society by these very sufferers in camp.
+
+Gradually these influences worked--the younger and gayer people
+indulged in the "danceable teas," Wyatt spoke of, after their
+sewing-circles. Imperceptibly the sewing was left for other times; and
+by Christmas there was a more constant--if less formal and
+general--round of gaiety than had been known for years. This brought
+the citizens and strangers more together, and naturally the result was
+a long season of more regular parties and unprecedented gaiety. Many
+still frowned at this, and, as usual, made unhappy Washington the
+scapegoat--averring that her pernicious example of heartlessness and
+frivolity had worked the evil.
+
+These rigid Romans staid at home and worked on zealously in their
+manufacture of warm clothing, deformed socks and impossible gloves for
+the soldier boys. All honor to them for their constancy, if they
+thought they were right, and the harmless gaiety wrong; and they fought
+the good fight, from behind their _abatis_ of knitting needles, only
+with the innocent weapons of tongue and precept. But human nature and
+inclination still held their own; and there were many defections from
+the ranks of the elect, to those of the more practical--and probably
+equally well-intentioned--pleasure-seekers.
+
+But parties were by no means the only resource for pleasure-lovers.
+Anything that combined amusement and put dollars in the treasuries of
+charitable societies became the rage; and here the rigidly virtuous and
+the non-elect met on neutral ground. Among the amateurs of the city
+were some who would have taken high rank in any musical circle, and
+these gave a series of concerts for the benefit of distressed families
+of the soldiers. The performers were the most fashionable of the
+society; and, of course, the judgment of their friends--who crowded to
+overflowing the churches where the concerts were held--was not to be
+relied on. But critics from New Orleans and all parts of the South
+declared the performances creditable to any city. After them the
+audience broke up into little cliques and had the jolliest little
+suppers the winter produced, with the inevitable "lancers" until the
+smallest of small hours.
+
+Then, there were charades and tableaux parties; while a few--more
+ambitious of histrionic fame--got up private theatricals. Altogether,
+in the gay set, the first winter of the war was one to be written in
+red letters, for old Richmond rang with a chime of merry laughter that
+for the time drowned the echo of the summer's fights and the groans of
+the wayside hospitals.
+
+One unique point in the society of Richmond struck me with a constantly
+recurring surprise. I could not get accustomed to the undisputed
+supremacy of the unmarried element that almost entirely composed it. It
+constantly seemed to me that the young people had seized the society
+while their elders' heads were turned, and had run away with it for a
+brief space; and I always looked to see older people come in, with
+reproof upon their brows, and take charge of it again. But I looked in
+vain. One day at a dinner, I remarked this to my next neighbor;
+suggesting that it was only because of the war. She was one of the most
+charming women the society could boast--scarcely more than a bride,
+just out of her teens, beautiful, accomplished and very gay.
+
+"Strangers always remark this," she answered; "but it is not the result
+of the war, or of the influx of strangers, as you suppose. Since I can
+remember, only unmarried people have been allowed to go to parties by
+the tyrants of seventeen who control them. We married folks do the
+requisite amount of visiting and teaing-out; and sometimes even rise in
+our wrath and come out to dinner. But as for a party--no! As soon as a
+girl is married, she must make up her mind to pay her bridal visits,
+dance a few weeks upon sufferance and then fold up her party dresses.
+No matter how young, how pretty, or how pleasant she may be, the
+Nemesis pursues her and she must succumb. The pleasant Indian idea of
+taking old people to the river bank and leaving them for the tide, is
+overstrictly carried out by our celibate Brahmins. Marriage is our
+Ganges. Don't you wonder how we ever dare to declare ourselves old
+enough?"
+
+I did wonder; for it had always been a hobby of mine that a certain
+amount of the married leaven was necessary in every society to give it
+tone and stamina. Though the French principle of excluding young
+ladies from all social intercourse, and giving the patent of society to
+_Madame_, may be productive of more harm than good, the converse seems
+equally objectionable. I can recollect no society in which some of the
+most pleasant memories do not center around the intercourse with its
+married portion. Richmond is no exception to the rule. In the South,
+women marry younger than in the colder states; and it often happens
+that the very brightest and most attractive points of character do
+not mature until an age when they have gotten their establishment. The
+education of the Virginia girl is so very different in all essential
+points from that of the northerner of the same station, that she is
+far behind her in self-reliance and _aplomb_. There is, doubtless, much
+in native character, but more in early surroundings and the habit
+of education. The southerner, more languid and emotional, but less
+self-dependent--even if equally "up in" showier accomplishments--is not
+formed to shine most at an early stage of her social career. Firmer
+foothold and more intimate knowledge of its intricacies are necessary
+to her, before she takes her place as a woman of the world.
+
+Hence, I was much puzzled to account for the patent fact that the
+better matured of its flowers should be so entirely suppressed, in the
+Richmond bouquet, by the half-opened buds. These latter, doubtless,
+gave a charming promise of bloom and fragrance when they came to their
+full; but too early they left an effect of immaturity and crudity upon
+the sense of the unaccustomed. Yet Richmond had written over the
+portals of its society: Who enters here no spouse must leave behind!
+and the law was of the Medan. A stranger within their gates had no
+right to cavil at a time-honored custom; but not one could spend a
+winter week in the good old town, and fail to have this sense of
+unfinishedness in her society fabric.
+
+The fair daughters of the Capital are second to none in beauty, grace
+and the higher charm of pure womanhood. Any assembly showed fresh,
+bright and gentle faces, with constant pretty ones, and an occasional
+marked beauty. There is a peculiar, lithe grace, normal to the South,
+that is hard to describe; and, on the whole, even when not beautiful,
+there is a _je ne sais quoi_ that renders her women very attractive.
+
+The male element at parties ranged from _passe_ beau to the boy with
+the down still on his cheek--ancient bachelors and young husbands alike
+had the open sesame. But if a married lady, however young in years or
+wifehood, passed the forbidden limits by accident--_Vae victis!_
+
+She was soon made to feel that the sphere of the mated was pantry
+or nursery--not the ball-room. To stranger dames--if young and
+lively--justice a little less stern was meted; but even they, after a
+few offenses, were made to feel how hard is the way of the transgressor.
+
+In a community like Richmond, where every one in the circle had played
+together in childhood, or was equally intimate, such a state of things
+might readily obtain. In a larger city, never. It spoke volumes for the
+purity and simplicity of the society that for years it had gone on
+thus, and no necessity for any matronage had been felt. But now the
+case was different--a large promiscuous element of military guests was
+thrown into it; and it struck all that society must change its
+primitive habit.
+
+The village custom still prevailed in this--a gentleman could call for
+a lady--take her in his charge alone and without any chaperone--to a
+party and bring her back at the "we sma' hours." This was not only
+well, as long as the "Jeanette and Jenot" state of society prevailed,
+but it told convincingly the whole story of the honest truth of men and
+women. But with the sudden influx--when a wolf might so readily have
+imitated the guise of the lamb--a slight hedge of form could in no
+manner have intimated a necessity for it. Yet Richmond, in the proud
+consciousness of her simple purity, disdained all such precautions; and
+the informalities of the country town obtained in the salons of the
+nation's Capital.
+
+But parties were not the only hospitalities the wanderers received at
+the hands of the Virginians. In no state in the country one becomes
+domesticated so soon as in the Old Dominion. You may come to any of its
+towns a perfect stranger, but with a name known to one prominent
+citizen, or fortified with a few letters from the right source, and in
+a time astonishingly short you find yourself at home. This has been
+time out of mind Virginian custom; and as Richmond is but a condensation
+of all that is Virginian, it prevailed here as well. If the stranger
+did not give himself up to the whirl and yield himself, "rescue or no
+rescue," to the lance of the unmarried, he could find, behind the
+_chevaux de frise_ of clashing knitting-needles, the most genial
+welcome and most whole-souled hospitality.
+
+"Stupid party last night--too full," criticised Wyatt, as he lounged in
+my room one morning. "You seemed bored, old man, though I saw you with
+Nell H. Desperate flirt--pretty, too! But take my advice; let her
+alone. It don't pay to flirt."--The ten years between the captain and
+myself were to _my_ credit on Time's ledger--"It's all very well to
+stick up your pennon and ride gaily into the lists to break a lance
+with all comers. Society cries _laissez aller!_ and her old dowagers
+shower _largesse_. Presto! my boy, and you find your back on the grass
+and your heels in the air. But I've some steady-going cousins I want to
+introduce you to. Suit you exactly."
+
+Confound the boy! Where did he get that idea? But I was introduced to
+the "steady-going cousins" and to me now the Richmond of memory begins
+and ends in their circle. The jovial, pleasant family dinner around the
+old-time board; the consciousness of ready welcome to the social
+fireside, or partake of the muffin at eight, or the punch--brewed very
+near Father Tom's receipt--at midnight. Then the never-to-be-forgotten
+coterie of the brightest women of the day under the shaded droplight,
+in the long winter evenings! And none were excluded by the "steady
+goers" because they had committed matrimony. They did quantities of
+work that season; baskets of socks, bales of shirts and boxes of
+gloves, in numbers marvelous to see, went from that quiet circle to
+warm the frozen hands and feet, keeping watch and ward for them. And
+the simple words of cheer and love that went with them must have warmed
+hearts far colder than beat under the rough shirts they sent.
+
+And never did the genial current of talk--sometimes chatty, sometimes
+brilliant--flag for a moment. The foremost men of government and
+army were admitted, and I doubt if ever the most ardent of the
+unmarried--wilting in the lancers, or deliquescing in the _deux
+temps_--found very much more genuine enjoyment than the "easy goers,"
+over their distorted socks and impracticable gloves.
+
+They talked of books, events and people, and no doubt gossiped hugely;
+but though some of the _habitues_ were on the shady side of thirty and
+were sedately walking in the quiet parts of spinsterhood, I never heard
+one bitter--far less one scandalous, word!
+
+_Ferat qui meruit palmam!_ Let the green leaves adorn those wonderful
+women!
+
+But the novelty most remarked in the society of this winter was the
+household of President Davis. Soon after the Government was firmly
+established in Richmond, the State of Virginia placed at his disposal a
+plain but comfortable house; and here--with only the ladies of his
+family and his private secretary--he lived with the quiet simplicity of
+a private citizen.
+
+It will hardly be invading her _sacra privata_ to say that the
+President's lady did everything to remove false ideas that sprung up
+regarding the social atmosphere of the "Executive Mansion." She was "at
+home" every evening; and, collecting round her a staff that numbered
+some of the most noted men and brilliant women both of the stranger and
+resident society, assured all her varied guests a warm welcome and a
+pleasant visit. In this circle Mr. Davis would, after the trying
+business of the day, give himself an hour's relaxation before entering
+on labors that went far into the night; and favored friends and chance
+visitors alike here met the man, where they expected the official.
+
+Austere and thoughtful at all times, rarely unbending to show the vein
+of humor hidden deep under his stern exterior, and having besides "the
+divinity that doth hedge" even a republican president, Mr. Davis was
+never calculated for personal popularity. Even in the early days of his
+career he forced by his higher qualities--rather than sought by the
+arts of a trickster--the suffrages of his people; and they continued to
+cast their shells for him, even while they clamored that he was "the
+Just."
+
+Whatever grave errors reflecting criticisms may lay at his door;
+whatever share in the ruin of the South, the future historians may
+ascribe to his unswerving self-will and unvarying faith in his own
+power--no one who traces his career from West Point to the New Saint
+Helena--will call them failings of the demagogue.
+
+In these informal receptions of his lady, Mr. Davis said little;
+listening to the varied flow of talk that showed her equally cognizant
+and appreciative of social, literary and sterner topics. For the
+edification of the gayer visitor, she related odd experiences of her
+public life, with rare power of description and admirable flashes of
+humor. She discussed the latest book with some of the small _litterateurs_
+with whom she was infested; or talked knowingly of the last picture, or
+the newest opera, faint echoes from which might elude the grim blockaders
+on the coast.
+
+Mr. Davis spoke little, seeming to find a refreshing element in her
+talk, that--as she pithily said of some one else--was like tea, that
+cheers but not inebriates. Occasionally he clinched an argument, or
+gave a keener point to an idea by a short, strong sentence.
+
+After all had partaken of the cup of tea handed round informally, Mr.
+Davis retired to his study and once more donned his armor for battle
+with the giants without and the dwarfs within his territory.
+
+These informal "evenings" began to grow popular with the better class
+of Virginians, and tended to a much more cordial tone between the
+citizens and their chief. They were broken by bi-monthly "levees," at
+which Mr. and Mrs. Davis received "the world and his wife."
+
+But the formal "levee" was a Washington custom and smacked too much of
+the "old concern" to become very popular, although curiosity to see the
+man of the hour and to assist at an undress review of the celebrities
+of the new nation, thronged the parlors each fortnight. A military band
+was always in attendance; the chiefs of cabinet and bureaux moved about
+the crowd; and generals--who had already won names to live
+forever--passed, with small hands resting lightly on their chevrons,
+and bright eyes speaking most eloquently that old truism about who best
+deserve the fair.
+
+More than once that winter General Johnston moved through the
+rooms--followed by all eyes and calling up memories of subtle strategy
+and hard-won victory. Sometimes the burly form of Longstreet appeared,
+ever surrounded by those "little people" in whom he delighted; and the
+blonde beard of Hood--whose name already began to shine with promise of
+its future brilliance--towered over the throng of leading editors,
+"senior wranglers" from both houses of Congress, and dancing men
+wasting their time in the vain effort to talk.
+
+But not only the chosen ten thousand were called. Sturdy artisans, with
+their best coats and hands scrubbed to the proper point of cleanliness
+for shaking the President's, were always there. Moneyed men came, with
+speculation in their eyes, and lobby members trying to throw dust
+therein; while country visitors--having screwed their courage up to the
+desperate point of being presented--always dropped Mr. Davis' hand as
+if its not over-cordial grasp burned them.
+
+But the "levees" on the whole, if odd exhibitions, were at least useful
+in letting the "dear public" have a little glimpse of the inner
+workings of the great machine of government. And they proved, even more
+than the social evenings, the ease of right with which Varina Howell
+Davis wore her title of "the first lady in the land."
+
+The men of Richmond have spoken for themselves. They wrote the history
+of their class when they came forward--one and all, to sacrifice
+ease--affluence--life for the cause they felt to be just. There were
+some, as I shall hereafter endeavor to show, who were dwellers with
+them, but were not of them. These did nothing and gave nothing
+willingly for a cause in which they saw only a speculation. This is not
+the place to speak of such. They belong not to the goodly company of
+those who--whatever their weaknesses, or even their errors--proclaimed
+themselves honest men and chivalric gentlemen.
+
+The young men of the whole South are off-hand and impulsive; either
+naturally careless in pecuniary matters, or made so by habit. Sowing
+wild oats is an almost universal piece of farming; and the crop is as
+luxuriant in the mountains of Virginia as in the overflowed lands of
+Louisiana.
+
+Perhaps in Richmond they were not now seen from the most advantageous
+point of view. They were generally young planters from the country,
+reckless, jovial and prone to the lighter dissipations; or the young
+business and professional men, who rebounded from the routine of their
+former lives into a little extra rapidity. One and all--for the eyes
+they sought would not have looked upon them else--they had gone into
+the army; had fought and wrought well; and now with little to do, boon
+companionship and any amount of petting, they were paying for it. The
+constant strain of excitement produced much dissipation certainly--but
+it seldom took the reprehensible form of rowdyism and debauch. Some men
+drank deeply--at dinners, at balls and at bar-rooms; some gambled, as
+Virginians always had gambled--gaily, recklessly and for ruinous
+stakes. But find them where you would, there was about the men a
+careless pervading _bonhomie_ and a natural high tone resistlessly
+attractive, yet speaking them worthy descendants of the "Golden Horse
+Shoe Knights."
+
+As yet the influence of the Government was little felt socially. The
+presence of a large congregation of army men from the various camps had
+given an impetus to gaiety it would not otherwise have known; but this
+was all. There was little change in the habits and tone of social
+intercourse. The black shadow of Washington had not yet begun to spread
+itself, and its corrupt breath had not yet polluted the atmosphere of
+the good old town.
+
+The presence of Congress, with its ten thousand followers, would hardly
+be considered as elevating anywhere. There is an odor of tobacco--of
+rum--of discredit--of anything but sanctity about the American
+politician that makes his vicinage unpleasant and unprofitable.
+
+Congress had met in the quiet halls of the Virginia legislature. At
+first all Richmond flocked thither, crowding galleries and lobbies to
+see the might and intellect of the new nation in its most august
+aspect; to be refreshed and strengthened by the full streams that
+flowed from that powerful but pure and placid fountain; to hear words
+that would animate the faint and urge the ready to braver and higher
+deeds.
+
+Perhaps they did not hear all this; for after a little they stopped
+going, and the might and majesty of the new giant's intellect was left
+severely to itself. Of the herd of camp-followers who over-flowed the
+hotels and filled the streets, little note was taken. An occasional
+curious stare--a semi-occasional inquiry as to who they were--and they
+passed even up Franklin street without more remark. To the really
+worthy in government or army, the cordial hand of honest welcome was
+extended.
+
+The society unvaryingly showed its appreciation of excellence of
+intellect or character, and such as were known, or found to possess it,
+were at once received on the footing of old friends. But on the whole,
+the sentiment of the city was not in favor of the run of the new
+comers. The leaders of society kept somewhat aloof, and the general
+population gave them the sidewalk. It was as though a stately and
+venerable charger, accustomed for years to graze in a comfortable
+pasture, were suddenly intruded on by an unsteady and vicious drove of
+bad manners and low degree. The thoroughbred can only condescend to
+turn away.
+
+Willing as they were to undergo anything for the cause, the Virginians
+could not have relished the savor of the new importations; nor can one
+who knows the least of the very unclean nature of our national politics
+for a moment wonder.
+
+Montgomery had been a condensed and desiccated preparation of the
+Washington stew, highly flavored with the raciest vices. Richmond
+enjoyed the same mess, with perhaps an additional kernel or two of that
+garlic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+DAYS OF DEPRESSION.
+
+
+The proverb that misfortunes never come singly soon became a painful
+verity in the South; and a terrible reaction began to still the
+high-beating pulses of her triumph.
+
+The merry echoes of the winter had not yet died away, when it became
+oppressingly apparent that proper methods had not been taken to meet
+the steady and persevering preparations of the North. Disaster after
+disaster followed the arms of the South in close succession; and the
+spirits of all classes fell to a depth the more profound, from their
+elevation of previous joyance.
+
+As early as the 29th of the previous August, a naval expedition under
+Commodore Stringham had, after a short bombardment, reduced the forts
+at Hatteras Inlet. In the stream of gratulation following Manassas,
+this small event had been carried out of sight; and even the conquest
+of Port Royal, South Carolina, by Admiral Dupont's fleet, on the 7th of
+November, had been looked upon as one of those little mischances that
+only serve to shade all pictures of general victory.
+
+They were not taken for what they really were--proofs of the entirely
+defenseless condition of an immense sweep of coast, in the face of the
+heavy and increasing naval armament of the United States. They were
+considered reverses merely; inquiry went but little deeper and the
+lesson they should have taught was lost; while the inexplicable
+tardiness of the War Department left still more important points
+equally defenseless.
+
+But the news of General Crittenden's utter defeat at Mill Springs, on
+the 17th of January--of the disastrous results of his miscalculation,
+or misguided impetuosity, and of the death of Zollicoffer--came with
+stunning effect; opening wide the eyes of the whole country to the
+condition in which apathy, or mismanagement, had left it.
+
+As usual, too, in the popular estimate of a success, or a reverse, the
+public laid much stress on the death of Zollicoffer, who was a favorite
+both with them and the army. He was declared uselessly sacrificed, and
+his commanding general and the Government came in for an equal share of
+popular condemnation.
+
+Mr. Davis soon afterward relieved Secretary Walker from the duties of
+the War Office; putting Mr. Benjamin in his seat as temporary
+incumbent. The latter, as before stated, was known as a shrewd lawyer,
+of great quickness of perception, high cultivation, and some grasp of
+mind; but there was little belief among the people that he was fit to
+control a department demanding decision and independence, combined with
+intimate knowledge of military matters. Besides Mr. Benjamin personally
+had become exceedingly unpopular with the masses. Whether this arose
+from the unaccountable influence he--and he alone--had with his chief,
+or whether the busy tongues of his private enemies received too ready
+credence, is hard to say. But so the fact was; and his elevation gave
+rise to scurrilous attacks, as well as grave forebodings. Both served
+equally to fix Mr. Davis in the reasons he had believed good enough for
+his selection.
+
+Suddenly, on the 7th of February, Roanoke Island fell!
+
+Constant as had been the warnings of the press, unremittingly as
+General Wise had besieged the War Department, and blue as was the mood
+of the public--the blow still fell like a thunder-clap and shook to the
+winds the few remaining shreds of hope. General Wise was ill in bed;
+and the defense--conducted by a militia colonel with less than one
+thousand raw troops--was but child's play to the immense armada with
+heaviest metal that Burnside brought against the place.
+
+Roanoke Island was the key to General Huger's position at Norfolk. Its
+fall opened the Sounds to the enemy and, besides paralyzing Huger's
+rear communications, cut off more than half his supplies. The defeat
+was illustrated by great, if unavailing, valor on the part of the
+untrained garrison; by a plucky and determined fight of the little
+squadron under Commodore Lynch; and by the brilliant courage and death
+of Captain O. Jennings Wise--a gallant soldier and noble gentleman,
+whose popularity was deservedly great.
+
+But, the people felt that a period must be put to these mistakes; and
+so great was their clamor that a congressional committee investigated
+the matter; and their report declared that the disaster lay at the door
+of the War Department. The almost universal unpopularity of the
+Secretary made this a most acceptable view, even while an effort was
+made to shift part of the blame to General Huger's shoulders. But
+wherever the fault, the country could not shake off the gloom that such
+a succession of misfortunes threw over it.
+
+This feeling was, if possible, increased, and the greatest uneasiness
+caused in all quarters, by Burnside's capture of Newbern, North
+Carolina, on the 4th of March. Its defenses had just been completed at
+heavy cost; but General Branch, with a garrison of some 5,000 men, made
+a defense that resulted only in complete defeat and the capture of even
+his field artillery. Here was another point, commanding another supply
+country of great value to the commissariat, lost to the South. But
+worse still, its occupation gave the Federals an easy base for striking
+at the Weldon railroad.
+
+Nowhere was the weakness of the South throughout the war shown more
+fully than in her utterly inefficient transportation. Here were the
+demands of the army of Virginia and of a greatly-increased population
+in and around Richmond, supplied by one artery of communication!
+Seemingly every energy of the Government should have been turned to
+utilizing some other channel; but, though the Danville branch to
+Greensboro'--of only forty miles in length--had been projected more
+than a year, at this time not one rail had been laid.
+
+It is almost incredible, when we look back, that the Government should
+have allowed its very existence to depend upon this one line--the
+Weldon road; running so near a coast in possession of the enemy, and
+thus liable at any moment to be cut by a raiding party. Yet so it was.
+The country was kept in a state of feverish anxiety for the safety of
+this road; and a large body of troops diverted for its defense, that
+elsewhere might have decided many a doubtful battle-field. Their
+presence was absolutely necessary; for, had they been withdrawn and the
+road tapped above Weldon, the Virginia army could not have been
+supplied ten days through other channels, and would have been obliged
+to abandon its lines and leave Richmond an easy prey.
+
+Meanwhile the North had collected large and splendidly-equipped armies
+of western men in Kentucky and Tennessee, under command of Generals
+Grant and Buell. The new Federal patent, "the Cordon," was about to be
+applied in earnest. Its coils had already been unpleasantly felt on the
+Atlantic seaboard; General Butler had "flashed his battle blade"--that
+was to gleam, afterward, so bright at Fort Fisher and Dutch Gap--and
+had prepared an invincible armada for the capture of New Orleans; and
+simultaneously the armies under Buell were to penetrate into Tennessee
+and divide the systems of communication between Richmond and the South
+and West.
+
+General Albert Sidney Johnston was sent to meet these preparations,
+with all the men that could be spared from Western Virginia and the
+points adjacent to his line of operations. Still his force was very
+inadequate in numbers and appointment; while to every application for
+more men, the War Department replied that none could be spared him.
+
+The Federal plan was to advance their armies along the watercourses,
+simultaneously with their gunboats--light draught constructions
+prepared expressly for such service; and, penetrating to any possible
+point, there form depots with water communication to their base. The
+Tennessee and Cumberland rivers were plainly their highways. The only
+defenses of these streams were Forts Henry and Donelson--weak works
+inefficiently garrisoned; for the half million appropriated by Congress
+for their defense at the eleventh hour could not have been used in
+time, even had the money been forthcoming from the treasury.
+
+With scarcely a check to their progress, the Federals reduced and
+passed Fort Henry on the 4th of February, pressing on to Donelson, into
+and supporting which work, General Johnston had thrown General J. B.
+Floyd with some ten thousand troops under Pillow and Buckner. After
+three days' hard fighting, Floyd found the position untenable and
+further resistance impossible. He, therefore, turned over the command
+to Buckner--who refused to abandon the part of the garrison that could
+not escape--and, with General Pillow and some five thousand men,
+withdrew in the night and made good his escape.
+
+During the siege of Donelson, Johnston evacuated Bowling Green and
+awaited its issue opposite Nashville. The result being known, it
+naturally followed that this city--undefended by works of any
+description and with an army inadequate to its protection--had to be
+abandoned. The retreat was at once commenced; and it was on that gloomy
+march that Forrest first made the name that now stands with so few
+rivals among the cavalry leaders of the world. Commanding a regiment of
+cavalry from his own section, he seemed as ubiquitous as untiring.
+Keeping a constant front to the enemy--now here, now there, and ever
+cool, dauntless and unflinching--he gave invaluable aid in covering the
+rear of that retreat. About this time, also, John H. Morgan began to
+make his name known as a partisan chief; and no more thrilling and
+romantic pages show in the history of the times, than those retailing
+how he harassed and hurt the Federals while in Nashville.
+
+During the progress of these events on the Tennessee and Cumberland,
+Richmond had been shaken by alternate spasms of suspense and premature
+exultation.
+
+Her citizens could scarcely yet realize that the hitherto despised
+Yankees had been able to march, almost unchecked, into the heart of a
+territory protected by southern forts, southern troops, and the noblest
+names in all her bright array. Feeling thus, they still placed some
+credence in any rumors that came.
+
+One morning, news reached Richmond of a brilliant victory at Donelson,
+and it was received with wild rejoicing. Next night the War Department
+issued the stunning bulletin of the fall of Nashville! When this was
+generally believed, a gloom settled over the Capital, such as no event
+of the war had yet produced. The revulsion was too sudden and complete
+to be met by reason, or argument; the depression was too hopeless and
+despairing to be removed by any declaration of the valor of the
+defense, of the orderly character of the retreat, or of the far
+stronger position Johnston had gained by a concentration of his force
+on a ground of his own choice.
+
+The very name of gunboat began to have a shuddering significance to the
+popular mind. A vague, shadowy power of evil far beyond that of any
+floating thing, ancient or modern, was ascribed to it; and the wild
+panic constantly created in the Federal mind the year before by the
+dreaded name of "Black Horse," or the mere mention of masked
+battery--was re-enacted by the South in deferential awe of those
+floating terrors.
+
+Under this morbid state of gloom, the Government fell into greater and
+greater disfavor. Without much analytical reasoning, the people felt
+there must have been a misuse of resources, at least great enough to
+have prevented such wholesale disaster. Especial odium fell upon the
+War Department and reacted upon the President for retaining
+incapable--or, what was the same to them, unpopular--ministers in his
+council at such vital moment. The press--in many instances filled with
+gloomy forebodings and learned disquisitions on the I-told-you-so
+principle, fanned the flame of discontent. Mr. Davis soon found
+himself, from being the idol of the people, with nearly half the
+country in open opposition to his views.
+
+At this moment, perhaps, no one act could have encouraged this feeling
+more than his relieving Floyd and Pillow from command, for abandoning
+their posts and leaving a junior officer to capitulate in their stead.
+Certainly the action of these generals at Donelson was somewhat
+irregular in a strictly military view. But the people argued that they
+had done all that in them lay; that they had fought nobly until
+convinced that it was futile; that they had brought off five thousand
+effective men, who, but for that very irregularity, would have been
+lost to the army of the West; and, finally, that General Johnston had
+approved, if not that one act, at least their tried courage and
+devotion.
+
+Still, Mr. Davis remained firm, and--as was his invariable custom in
+such cases--took not the least note of the popular discontent. And
+still the people murmured more loudly, and declared him an autocrat,
+and his cabinet a bench of imbeciles.
+
+Thus, in a season of gloom pierced by no ray of light; with the enemy,
+elated by victory, pressing upon contracting frontiers; with discontent
+and division gnawing at the heart of the cause--the "Permanent
+Government" was ushered in.
+
+The 22d of February looked dark and dismal enough to depress still more
+the morbid sensibilities of the people. A deluge of rain flooded the
+city, rushed through the gutters in small rivers, and drenched the
+crowds assembled in Capitol Square to witness the inauguration.
+
+In the heaviest burst of the storm, Mr. Davis took the oath of office
+at the base of the Washington statue; and there was something in his
+mien--something solemn in the surroundings and the associations of his
+high place and his past endeavor--that, for the moment, raised him in
+the eyes of the people, high above party spite and personal prejudice.
+
+An involuntary murmur of admiration, not loud but heart-deep, broke
+from the crowds who thronged the drenched walks; and every foot of
+space on the roof, windows and steps of the Capitol. As it died, Mr.
+Davis spoke to the people.
+
+He told them that the fortunes of the South, clouded and dim as they
+looked to-day, must yet rise from the might of her united people, to
+shine out as bright and glorious as to-morrow's sun.
+
+It was singularly characteristic of the man, that even then he made no
+explanation of the course he had seen fit to take--no excuses for
+seeming harshness--no pledge of future yielding to any will but his
+own. The simple words he spoke were wholly impersonal; firm declaration
+that he would bend the future to his purpose; calm and solemn iteration
+of abiding faith that a united South, led by him, must be
+unconquerable.
+
+There was a depth in the hearts of his hearers that discontent could
+not touch:--that even discontent had not yet chilled. They saw in him
+the representative man of their choice--headstrong certainly, erring
+possibly. But they saw also the staunch, inflexible champion of the
+South, with iron will, active intellect, and honest heart bent steadily
+and unwearyingly to one purpose; and that purpose the meanest one among
+them clasped to his heart of hearts!
+
+Then, through the swooping blasts of the storm, came a low, wordless
+shout, wrenched from their inmost natures, that told, if not of renewed
+faith in his means, at least of dogged resolution to stand by him,
+heart and hand, to achieve the common end.
+
+It was a solemn sight, that inauguration.
+
+Men and women left the square with solemn brows and serious voices.
+There was none of the bustle and pride of a holiday pageant; but there
+was undoubtedly a genuine resolve to toil on in the hard road and reach
+the end, or fall by the wayside in the effort.
+
+Having laid out a fixed line of policy, Mr. Davis in no way deviated
+from it. There were no changes of government measures and no changes of
+government men, except the elevation of General George W. Randolph to
+the Secretaryship of War. This gentleman--a clear-headed lawyer, a
+tried patriot and soldier by education and some experience--was
+personally very popular with all classes. He was known to possess
+decision of character and a will as firm as the President's own; and
+the auguries therefrom were, that in future the chief of the War Office
+would also be its head. His advent, therefore, was hailed as a new era
+in military matters.
+
+But Mr. Benjamin, who became daily more unpopular, had been removed
+from the War Department only to be returned to the portfolio of State,
+which had been kept open during his incumbency of the former. This
+promotion was accepted by the Secretary's enemies as at once a reproof
+to them, and a blow aimed at the popular foreign policy. They boldly
+averred that, though the foreign affairs of the Government might not
+call for very decided measures, Mr. Benjamin would not scruple--now
+that he more than ever had the ear of his chief--to go beyond his own
+into every branch of the Government, and to insert his own peculiar and
+subtle sophisms into every recess of the Cabinet.
+
+To do the Secretary justice, he bore the universal attack with most
+admirable good nature and _sang froid_. To all appearance, equally
+secure in his own views and indifferent to public odium, he passed from
+reverse to reverse with perfectly bland manner and unwearying courtesy;
+and his rosy, smiling visage impressed all who approached him with
+vague belief that he had just heard good news, which would be
+immediately promulgated for public delectation.
+
+The other members of the Cabinet, though not equally unpopular, still
+failed fully to satisfy the great demands of the people. Two of them
+were daily arraigned before the tribunal of the press--with what
+reason, I shall endeavor, hereafter, to show.
+
+Mr. Reagan's administration of the Post-office, while very bad, was
+possibly as good as any one else could have inaugurated, with the short
+rolling-stock and cut roads of ill-managed, or unmanaged systems; and
+the Attorney-General was of so little importance for the moment as to
+create but little comment.
+
+Thus the permanent government of the struggling South was inaugurated
+amid low-lowering clouds. Every wind from the North and West threatened
+to burst them into overwhelming flood; while, within the borders of the
+nascent Nation, no ray of sunshine yet reflected from behind their
+somber curtain.
+
+And through the gloom--with no groping hand and with unfaltering
+tread;--straight to the fixed purport of its own unalterable purpose,
+strode the great, incarnate Will that could as little bend to clamor,
+as break under adversity!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+FROM SHILOH TO NEW ORLEANS.
+
+
+Within two weeks of his inauguration, the strongly hopeful words of
+President Davis seemed to approach fulfillment, through the crushing
+victory of the "Merrimac" in Hampton Roads, on the 8th March. There was
+no doubt of the great success of her first experiment; and the people
+augured from it a series of brilliant and successful essays upon the
+water. The late bugbear--gunboats--began to pale before the terrible
+strength of this modern war-engine; and hopes were cherished that the
+supremacy afloat--which had been the foundation of the claim of Federal
+victory--was at an end.
+
+On the 23d of the same month, Jackson--who was steadily working his way
+to the foremost place in the mighty group of heroes--struck the enemy a
+heavy blow at Kernstown. His success, if not of great material benefit,
+was at least cheering from its brilliance and dash.
+
+But the scale, that trembled and seemed about to turn in favor of the
+South, again went back on receipt of the news of Van Dorn's defeat, on
+the 7th March, in the trans-Mississippi. Price and his veterans--the
+pride of the whole people, and the great dependence in the West--had
+been defeated at Elk Horn. And again the calamity assumed unwonted
+proportions in the eyes of the people from the death of Generals Ben
+McCollough and McIntosh--the former a great favorite with Government,
+army and public.
+
+This news overshadowed the transient gleam from Hampton Roads and
+Kernstown; plunging the public mind into a slough of despond, in which
+it was to be sunk deeper and deeper with each successive despatch.
+
+After Nashville, Island No. 10--a small marsh-surrounded knob in the
+Mississippi river--had been selected by General Beauregard, and
+fortified with all the appliances of his great engineering skill, until
+deemed well-nigh impregnable. It was looked upon as the key to the
+defenses of the river, and of the line of railroad communication
+between New Orleans and the West with the Capital. In the middle of
+March the Federal flotilla commenced a furious bombardment of that
+station; and though a stubborn defense was conducted by its garrison,
+some boats succeeded in running its batteries on the 6th April. It was
+then deemed necessary at once to abandon the post, which was done with
+such precipitate haste that over seventy valuable guns--many of them
+perfectly uninjured; large amounts of stores, and all of the sick and
+wounded, fell into the hands of the captors.
+
+On the same day was joined the hardest and bloodiest battle that had to
+this time drenched the land with the best blood in it.
+
+General Grant, with an army of not less than 45,000 fresh and
+well-equipped soldiers, had been facing General A. S. Johnston, seeking
+to amuse him until a junction with Buell could surely crush his small
+force--not aggregating 30,000 effective men. To frustrate this intent,
+Johnston advanced to the attack on the plains of Shiloh, depending upon
+the material of his army, and his disposition of it, to equalize the
+difference of numbers.
+
+At early dawn on Sunday, the 6th April, General Hardee, commanding the
+advance of the little army, opened the attack. Though surprised--in
+many instances unarmed and preparing their morning meal--the Federals
+flew to arms and made a brave resistance, that failed to stop the
+onward rush of the southern troops. They were driven from their camp;
+and the Confederates--flushed with victory, led by Hardee, Bragg and
+Polk, and animated by the dash and ubiquity of Johnston and
+Beauregard--followed with a resistless sweep that hurled them, broken
+and routed, from three successive lines of entrenchments. The Federals
+fought with courage and tenacity. Broken, they again rallied; and
+forming into squads in the woods, made desperate bush-fighting.
+
+But the wild rush of the victorious army could not be stopped! On its
+front line swept!--On, like the crest of an angry billow, crushing
+resistance from its path and leaving a ghastly wreck under and behind
+it!
+
+While leading a charge early in the afternoon, General Johnston
+received a Minie-ball in his leg. Believing it but a flesh wound, he
+refused to leave the ground; and his falling from his horse, faint with
+the loss of blood, was the first intimation the staff had of its
+serious nature; or that his death, which followed almost immediately,
+could result from so slight a wound.
+
+The loss of their leader was hidden from the men; and they drove the
+enemy steadily before them, until sunset found his broken and
+demoralized masses huddled on the river bank, under cover of the
+gunboats.
+
+Here Grant waited the onset, with almost the certainty of annihilation.
+But the onset never came; that night Buell crossed upward of 20,000
+fresh troops; the broken army of Grant was reformed; Wallace's division
+of it joined the main body; and next day, after a terrible and
+disastrous fight, the southrons slowly and sullenly retired from the
+field they had so nobly won the day before.
+
+A horrid scene that field presented, as foot by foot the fresh
+thousands of the Federals wrenched it from the shattered and decimated
+Confederates; the ground furrowed by cannon, strewn with abandoned
+arms, broken gun-carriages, horses plunging in agony, and the dead and
+dying in every frightful attitude of torture!
+
+The battle of Shiloh was the bloodiest of the war. The little army of
+the South had lost near one-third of its whole number; while the
+Federals had bought back their camp with the loss of not less than
+16,000 men.
+
+And, while the bloodiest field, none had so splendidly illustrated the
+stubborn valor of the men and the brilliant courage of their leaders.
+Gladden had fallen in the thickest of the fight--the circumstances of
+his death sending a freshened glow over the bright record he had
+written at Contreras and Molino del Rey. The names of Bragg, Hardee and
+Breckinridge were in the mouths of men, who had been held to their
+bloody work by these bright exemplars. Wherever the bullets were
+thickest, there the generals were found--forgetful of safety, and ever
+crying--"Come!"
+
+Governor Harris had done good service as volunteer aid to General
+Johnston; and Governor George M. Johnson, of Kentucky, had gone into
+the battle as a private and had sealed his devotion to the cause with
+his blood. Cheatham and Bushrod Johnson bore bloody marks of the part
+they took; while Breckinridge, who had already won undying fame, added
+to his reputation for coolness, daring, and tenacity, by the excellence
+with which he covered the rear of the army on its retreat to Corinth.
+
+The results of the battle of Shiloh--while they gave fresh cause for
+national pride--were dispiriting and saddening. It seemed as though the
+most strenuous efforts to marshal fine armies--and the evacuation of
+city after city to concentrate troops--were only to result in an
+indiscriminate killing, and no more; as if the fairest opportunities
+for a crushing blow to the enemy were ever to be lost by error, or
+delay.
+
+The death of General Johnston, too--seemingly so unnecessary from the
+nature of his wound--caused a still deeper depression; and the public
+voice, which had not hesitated to murmur against him during the
+eventful weeks before the battle, now rose with universal acclaim to
+canonize him when dead. It cried out loudly that, had he lived through
+the day of Shiloh, the result would have been different.
+
+It must be the duty of impartial history to give unbiased judgment on
+these mooted points; but the popular verdict, at the time, was that
+Beauregard had wasted the precious moment for giving the _coup-de-grace_.
+The pursuit of the Federals stopped at six o'clock; and if, said people
+and press, he had pushed on for the hour of daylight still left him,
+nothing could possibly have followed but the annihilation, or
+capitulation, of Grant's army.
+
+On the other hand, Beauregard's defenders replied that the army was so
+reduced by the terrible struggle of twelve hours--and more by
+straggling after the rich spoils of the captured camp--as to render
+further advance madness. And in addition to this, it was claimed that
+he relied on the information of a most trusty scout--none other than
+Colonel John Morgan--that Buell's advance could not possibly reach the
+river within twenty-four hours. Of course, in that event, it was far
+better generalship to rest and collect his shattered brigades, and
+leave the final blow until daylight.
+
+An erroneous impression prevailed in regard to this fight, that
+Johnston had been goaded into a precipitate and ill-judged attack by
+the adverse criticisms of a portion of the press. No one who knew aught
+of that chivalric and true soldier would for an instant have believed
+he could lend an ear to such considerations, with so vast a stake in
+view; and the more reasonable theory came to be accepted--that he
+desired to strike Grant before the heavy columns that Buell was pouring
+down could join him.
+
+At an events, the sad waste of position and opportunity, and the heavy
+loss in brilliant effort and valuable lives, caused equal
+dissatisfaction and gloom. Beauregard's new strategic point commanded a
+valuable sweep of producing territory, protected the communications,
+and covered Memphis. Still people were not satisfied; and tongues and
+pens were busy with the subject, until an event occurred that wrapped
+the whole country in wondering and paralyzing grief.
+
+On the 26th April New Orleans surrendered to Admiral Farragut!
+
+The Federal fleet had long been hovering about the twin forts at the
+mouth of the river; and daily telegrams of the progress of the
+bombardment and of their impregnability had schooled the country into
+the belief that the city was perfectly secure. Day after day the wires
+repeated the same story of thousands of shell and nobody hurt, until
+inquiry ceased to be even anxious; and the people were ready to despise
+this impotent attempt upon the most important point of the far South.
+
+So secure had the Government been in her defenses, that regiment after
+regiment had been withdrawn from New Orleans and sent to Corinth, until
+General Lovell found his command reduced to less than three thousand
+effective men--and more than half of these local militia and volunteer
+organizations.
+
+Suddenly came the despatch that the fleet had passed the forts at dawn
+on the 24th! All was consternation in the city. The confidence had been
+so great that daily avocations went on as usual; and the news found
+every one as unprepared for it, as though no enemy had been near.
+
+Confusion ruled the hour. General Lovell reached the city from below;
+and, feeling that his handful of men could effect nothing and might
+only offer an excuse for bombardment, he yielded to the desire of the
+city authorities and withdrew to Camp Moore. He carried with him all
+the munitions and supplies that were capable of transportation; and
+held himself ready to return at a moment's notice from the Council.
+
+Meanwhile, the Federal fleet had engaged the Confederate
+flotilla--consisting of an incomplete iron-clad, a plated tow-boat ram,
+and eight or ten useless wooden shells--and after a desperate fight had
+driven them off only to be blown up, one by one, by their own
+commanders.
+
+The water-batteries then offered no effective resistance. The
+obstructions had been opened to remove accumulated raft, and could not
+be closed; and the fleet moved slowly up to seize the rich prize that
+lay entirely within its grasp.
+
+On the 26th April, the "Hartford" leading the van, it anchored off the
+city to find it hushed as death and wrapped in the eddying smoke-clouds
+from fifteen thousand burning bales of cotton. After the first burst of
+consternation, the people took heart; and even at the sight of the
+enemy's shipping did not lose all hope. There were no soldiers aboard;
+Butler's army could not dare the passage of the forts in the shells of
+transports that contained it; the fleet, cut off as it was from all
+re-enforcement and supply, could, at worst, only shell the city and
+retire--again running the gauntlets of the two forts; and then the only
+loss to the city--for the flotilla in its incomplete state could not
+have been made effective as a defense--would have been the cotton and
+the trifling damage done by the shells.
+
+So the people hoped on. A long correspondence, coupled with reiterated
+threats of bombardment, ensued between Mayor Monroe and Admiral
+Farragut, relative to the State flag that still floated over the Custom
+House. Still the city was not in Federal power and there might yet be a
+chance.
+
+But on the 28th, the news of the fall of the forts in consequence of
+the surrender of their garrisons--took the last support from the most
+hopeful. The city yielded utterly; the marines of the "Hartford"
+landed, took formal possession, raised the stars and stripes over the
+City Hall; and the emblem of Louisiana's sovereignty went down forever!
+
+Three days after, General Butler landed and took command of the city,
+for which he had not struck a blow. He stationed his garrison in the
+public buildings, the hotels, and even in private houses; and then
+commenced a system of oppression and extortion, that--while it made the
+blood boil in the veins of every southron--has sent his name to the
+honest thinkers of the future linked with a notoriety which all history
+proves to be unique.
+
+The annals of the war are not free from small pilferers and vicious
+imbeciles; but high above the tableau they form, this warrior has
+perched himself upon a pinnacle--let us hope--unattainable again!
+
+It is hard to overrate the consequences of the fall of New Orleans. The
+commercial city and port of the whole South-west--its depot and
+granary--the key to communication with the trans-Mississippi, and the
+sentinel over vast tracts of rich and productive territory--her loss
+was the most stunning blow that had yet been dealt the cause of the
+South.
+
+It opened the whole length of the Mississippi as a new base for
+operations against the interior; and gave opportunities for
+establishing a series of depots, from which the Federal armies--if ever
+beaten and shattered--could be rapidly and effectively recruited.
+
+Not the least disastrous effect of this blow was its reception by the
+people. After the first bitter wail went up over the land, inquiry came
+from every quarter how long this state of things could last. Position
+after position--fortress after fortress--city after city--declared
+impregnable by the Government up to the very last moment, fell suddenly
+and mysteriously; only to expose, when too late, the chain of grievous
+errors that inseparably linked the catastrophe with the Government.
+
+The public demanded at least an explanation of these things--a candid
+expose of the condition to which they were reduced. If told they were
+battling hopelessly for their frontiers; that the enemy was too strong
+and the extent of territory too large for sure defense; if told, even,
+there were grave reason to doubt the ultimate issue--they were yet
+willing to battle for the hope, and to go uncomplainingly to the front
+and face the gloomy truth.
+
+But to be buoyed day by day with high-sounding protestations of
+invincibility, only to see their strongest points dropping, one by one,
+into the lap of the enemy; to be lulled into security to find, too
+late, that the Government had deceived them, while it deceived itself;
+and thus to imbibe a deep distrust of the hands in which their hopes
+and the future were placed--this was more than they could bear; and "a
+thick darkness that could be felt" brooded over the land.
+
+But as yet this feeling had not begun in any way to react upon the
+army. The hardy soldiers had enough to do to keep them busy; and
+besides had laid up a stock of glorious reminiscences, upon which to
+fall back when bad news reached them. Only the bare facts of these
+rapid and terrible blows reached the camps; and stubborn, hard-fisted
+"Johnny Reb," looked upon them smilingly as reverses to be made up
+to-morrow, or the next time he caught "Mr. Yank."
+
+To the Louisiana soldiers, the news of the fall of their beautiful city
+had a far deeper and more bitter import. Some of the business men of
+New Orleans, who remained in the city, yielded to the promptings of
+interest and fell to worshipping the brazen calf, the Washington high
+priest had set up for them. Some refused to degrade themselves and
+remained to be taught that might is right; and that handcuffs are for
+the conquered. Others collected what little they could and fled to
+Europe; while nobler spirits eluded the vigilance of their captors and
+came by scores into the Confederate camps.
+
+But the women of New Orleans were left behind. They could not come; and
+against them the Pontiff of Brutality fulminated that bull, which
+extorted even from the calm and imperturbable British Premier the
+exclamation--"Infamous!"
+
+The intended insult fell dead before the purity of southern womanhood;
+but the malignancy that prompted it seared deep into their hearts.
+Though their defenders were away, the women of New Orleans rose in
+their majesty of sex; and, "clothed on with chastity," defied the
+oppressor and called on manhood everywhere to judge between him and
+them. As
+
+    "When the face of Sextus was seen amid the foes"--
+
+in those earlier days when Roman womanhood was roused to defy that
+elder traducer--
+
+    "No women on the housetops
+      But spat toward him and hiss'd;
+    No child but scream'd out curses
+      And shook its little fist!"
+
+And the cry echoed in the hearts of the Louisianians in the battle's
+front. It mattered not so much to them if the defenses had been
+neglected; if the proper precautions had not been taken, and their
+firesides and families sacrificed, while they were battling so nobly
+far away. They only felt that those dear homes--their wives, and
+sisters, and sweethearts--were now in the relentless grasp of a hero
+who burned to war against women.
+
+And deep in their souls they swore a bitter oath to fight in the
+future, not only for the cause they loved, but for themselves; to
+strike each blow, nerved by the thought that it was for the redemption
+of their homes and their loved ones; or, if not for this--for
+vengeance!
+
+Gradually this spirit inoculated their fellow-soldiers. The bitter
+feelings of the struggle, strong enough before, became intensified; and
+in every Confederate camp was brewing a sullen and somber war-cloud,
+the sudden flashes from which were to strike terror to the heart of the
+North before that summer was done.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE CONSCRIPTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
+
+
+In the midst of the gloom, weighing upon the country about the days of
+Shiloh, the Confederate Congress moved on a point of vital import to
+its cause. Weak and vacillating as that body had proved; lacking as it
+was in decision, to force its views on the executive, or to resist
+popular clamor, backed by _brutum fulmen_ of the press--a moment had
+come when even the blindest of legislators could not fail to see.
+
+More men, was the cry from every general in the field. With more men,
+the army of Manassas could have carried the war over the Potomac
+frontier; perhaps have ended it there. With more men, Nashville would
+have been saved and Shiloh won. With more men, the enemy, pouring over
+the daily contracting frontiers, if not checked in their advance, might
+be restrained from, or chastised for, the brutal and uncivilized
+warfare that now began to wage, away from all great army centers.
+
+Great as was the need for new blood and new brains, in the council of
+the nation--still more dire was the need for fresh muscle in its
+armies. Levies must be raised, or all was lost; and the glories that
+had wreathed the southern flag, even when it drooped lowest--priceless
+blood that had been poured as a sacrament to consecrate it--would all
+be set at naught by the imbecility of the chosen lawgivers of the
+people. Thus, after a pressure of months from cooler heads in
+government, the more thoughtful of the people, and the most farsighted
+of the press, the few live men in Congress wrung from it the
+"Conscription Act" on the 16th day of April.
+
+The reader may have gained some faint idea of the alacrity with which
+men of all classes rushed into the ranks; of the steady endeavor and
+unmurmuring patience with which they bore the toils and dangers of
+their chosen position; of their unwavering determination to fight the
+good fight to the end. That the same spirit as genuinely pervaded the
+masses of the army now, there is little doubt; but the South--instead
+of husbanding her resources, had slept during these precious months the
+North utilized to bring a half million of men against her.
+
+Now, when she woke to the plain fact that her existence depended--not
+only on keeping in the ranks every man already there, but of adding
+largely to their numbers--it was but natural that the Government's
+torpor had, in a slight degree, reacted upon its soldiers.
+
+When the Government had assumed more form and regularity with increased
+proportions and the conviction, forced upon the most obtuse mind, that
+a struggle was at hand demanding most perfect organization, the
+looseness of a divided system had become apparent. The laws against any
+State maintaining a standing army were put into effect; and the
+combined military power was formally turned over, as a whole, to the
+Confederate authorities. This change simply meant that complete
+organizations were accepted as they stood, as soldiers of the
+Confederacy instead of soldiers of the states; the men were mustered
+into the Confederate service and the officers had their state
+commissions replaced by those from the Confederate War Department. From
+that date, the troops were to look to the central Government for their
+pay, subsistence, and supplies.
+
+In mustering in, all troops--with only exceptions where their contracts
+with state governments demanded--were received "for three years of the
+war." At Montgomery, many admirable organizations had been tendered to
+the Government for one year; and much discussion had ensued on the
+subject of their reception. It was then generally believed, even by the
+longest heads in the Cabinet, that the war would be _only a campaign_.
+I have elsewhere alluded to the tenacity with which its supporters
+clung to this idea; and Mr. Davis was almost alone in his persistent
+refusal to accept the troops for less than three years, or the war. To
+the one campaign people he said, very justly, that if the troops were
+taken for twelve months, and the war were really over in six, here was
+the Government saddled with the incubus at a standing army, infinitely
+greater than its needs; and here large bodies of men who might be of
+incalculable service elsewhere, tied to the vitiating and worse than
+useless influences of a peace camp. On the other hand, should the war
+last longer, in its very climax a large body of educated soldiers, just
+trained to a point of usefulness, would have the right to demand their
+discharge, when their places would be difficult to fill even with raw
+levies. There was much dissatisfaction among the one campaign people;
+but their own argument--that, if received for the war, the troops would
+get home before their proposed twelve months expired--was unanswerable.
+Now, when the same arguments were used to enforce the passage of the
+Conscription Act, the enemies that Mr. Davis had by this time gathered
+around him, little recked that in their wisdom, they were quoting him.
+
+This transfer to the Confederate Government covered _all_ the troops of
+the several states, except the militia. This, of course, remained under
+the authority of their respective governors.
+
+Naturally, with the addition to the force originally contemplated by
+"the assembled wisdom of the land," the five brigadier-generals allowed
+by Congress proved totally inadequate. A law had subsequently been
+forced from them, granting the appointment of five _generals_--a rank
+paramount to that of field-marshal in European armies--of the regular
+army, who were to command volunteers; and allowing the President to
+appoint such number of brigadiers of volunteers as the necessities of
+the service demanded.
+
+There had been little hesitancy in the selection of the generals--all
+of them men who had served with distinction in the army of the United
+States; and who had promptly left it to cast their lot with the new
+Government. So little difference could be found in their claims for
+precedence, that the dates of their old commissions decided it. They
+were Samuel Cooper, Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E.
+Johnston and Pierre G. T. Beauregard.
+
+These nominations had been received with unanimity by the Senate, and
+with profound satisfaction by the people. Had fitness and right been
+consulted equally in other appointments, much priceless blood might
+have been saved to the South.
+
+Still, at the time, it was believed that the commissions of brigadier
+of volunteers were conferred upon the most meritorious of the resigned
+officers; or, where there was reason to hope good results to the
+service--upon the best of those men the troops had chosen as
+commanders. Strong pressure was, of course, brought to bear upon the
+President, regarding these appointments; but the verdict of army and
+people was that _these first_ selections were made with as much
+judgment and impartiality as the untried state of the army permitted.
+
+But fifteen months' quiet endurance of hardship, danger and doubt; the
+universal wail from homes that had never before known, a dark hour, but
+where unaccustomed toil now fought vainly against misery and disease; a
+pervading sense of insecurity for any point, and that those
+homes--broken and saddened as they were--might meet a yet worse
+fate--all these causes had done their work. Undaunted and unconquered
+as the men were, the bravest and most steadfast still longed for a
+sight of the dear faces far away.
+
+The term of service of more than a hundred regiments would expire soon,
+enlistments had become slow and were not to be stimulated by any
+inducements legislation could offer. The very danger that had been
+pointed out in refusing more "twelve months' men" became too imminent
+to evade.
+
+The soldiers of the South were more anxious than ever to meet the foe.
+Added to their love for the cause, many now felt bitter personal
+incentive to fight; and every blow was now struck alike for country and
+for self. But while panting for the opportunity, they had a vague
+feeling that they must fight nearer home and--forgetting that the sole
+protection to their loved ones lay in a union, closer and more
+organized than ever--each yearned for the hour when he would be free to
+go and strike for the defense of his own hearthstone.
+
+The intent of the conscription was to put every man in the country,
+between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, into the army;
+restricting "details" from the field within the narrowest limits of
+absolute necessity. It retained, of course, every man already in the
+field; and, had its spirit been vigorously carried out, would have more
+than doubled the army by midsummer.
+
+It provided for the separate enrollment of each state under a
+"Commandant of Conscripts;" and for collecting new levies at proper
+points in "Camps of Instruction," under competent officers, that
+recruits might go to the army prepared in drill and knowledge of camp
+life for immediate service.
+
+But, the Conscription Act, like all other congressional measures, was
+saddled with a companion, "Bill of Exemptions." This--while so loosely
+constructed as almost to nullify all good effect of the law--opened the
+door to constant clashing of personal and public interests, and to
+great abuses of the privilege.
+
+It would, of course, have been folly to draw every able-bodied male
+from districts already so drained of effective population as to have
+become almost non-producing. Such a course would have put thousands of
+additional mouths into the ranks, and still further have reduced the
+straitened means for feeding them. And it would have been equally
+suicidal to draw from forge and from lathe, those skilled artisans who
+were day and night laboring to put weapons in the hands of those sent
+to wield them.
+
+But the "Bill of Exemptions" left possible both of these things, at the
+same time that it failed to restrain abuses of privileges in certain
+high quarters. The matter of "details" was, of course, essential; and
+it was only to be supposed that generals in the field could best judge
+the value of a man in another position than the front.
+
+But the most objectionable feature to the army was the "Substitute
+Law," which allowed any one able to buy a man, not subject to the
+action of conscription, to send him to be shot at in his place.
+Soldiers who had endured all perils and trials of the war, naturally
+felt that if they were retained in positions they objected to, those
+who had been comfortably at home--and in many instances coining that
+very necessity into fortunes--should be forced at the eleventh hour to
+come and defend themselves and their possessions. Besides, the class of
+men who were willing to sell themselves as substitutes were of the very
+lowest order. All citizens of the South were liable to conscription;
+and the "exempts" open to purchase, were either strange adventurers, or
+men over and under age, who--argued the soldiers--if fit for service
+should come of their own free will.
+
+Veteran troops had a low enough opinion of the "conscript" as a genus;
+but they failed not to evince, by means more prompt than courteous,
+their thorough contempt for the "substitute."
+
+These causes produced much discontent, where men would cheerfully have
+acquiesced in a law essential to the preservation of the fabric they
+had reared and cemented with their blood. To quell this feeling, a
+reorganization of the army was effected. A certain time was allowed for
+any liable man to volunteer and choose his branch of the service and,
+if practicable, his regiment; and so great was the dread of incurring
+the odium of conscription, that the skeleton veteran regiments rapidly
+filled up to a point of efficiency. They were then allowed to choose
+their own officers by election; and, though this lost to the service
+many valuable men who had become unpopular, still the army was better
+satisfied within itself.
+
+The refilled regiments were re-brigaded by states when practicable, a
+general from a different state being sometimes placed in command; and
+the whole army was divided into corps, of three divisions each,
+commanded by a lieutenant-general.
+
+Whatever the weakness of its construction--and the abuses of the
+exemption and detail power in carrying it out--there can be little
+doubt that the conscription at this time saved the country from speedy
+and certain conquest; and credit should be given to the few active
+workers in the congressional hive who shamed the drones into its
+passage.
+
+Had the men whose term expired been once permitted to go home, they
+could never again have been collected; the army would have dwindled
+into a corporal's guard here and there; the masses the North was
+pouring down on all sides would have swept the futile resistance before
+it; and the contest, if kept up at all, would have degenerated into a
+guerrilla warfare of personal hatred and vengeance, without a semblance
+of confederation, or nationality.
+
+Once passed, the people of the whole country acquiesced in and approved
+the conscription, and gave all the aid of their influence to its
+progress. Here and there a loud-mouthed demagogue would attempt to
+prejudice the masses against the measure; but scarcely a community
+failed to frown down such an effort, in the great extremity of the
+country, as vicious and traitorous. The opposition that the project had
+met in the administration--from doubt as to its availability--was
+removed by its very first working. What had been in its inception an
+unpopular measure, received now the approbation of all classes; and the
+governors of every state--save one--went to work with hearty good will
+to aid its carrying out.
+
+This exception was Governor Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia, who entered
+into a long wrangle with the administration on the constitutional
+points involved. He denied the right of Congress to pass such an act,
+and of the Executive to carry it out within the limits of a sovereign
+state; averred--with much circumlocution and turgid bombast--that such
+attempt would be an infringement of the State Rights of Georgia, which
+he could not permit.
+
+Mr. Davis replied in a tone so reasonable, decorous and temperate as to
+wring unwilling admiration even from his opponents. He pointed out
+briefly the weak points that rendered the governor's position utterly
+untenable, ignored the implied warning of resistance to the law; and
+succinctly stated that he relied upon the patriotism of Georgians to
+grasp the full meaning of the crisis their executive failed to
+comprehend; and he closed by stating that the conscription must go on.
+
+Governor Brown found no supporters for his extreme views, even in the
+anti-administration party. The people felt the imminence of the danger;
+and here, as in all matters of deep import, they placed the
+conservation of the cause high above partisan prejudices, or jealousies
+of cliques. Utterly silenced by the calm dignity and incisive logic of
+Mr. Davis, and abandoned by the few supporters his defiance of the
+administration had at first collected around him, Governor Brown was
+forced to yield; achieving only the conviction that he had the general
+condemnation of the popular voice.
+
+Once set in motion, the machinery of conscription worked rapidly and
+somewhat smoothly. The Camps of Instruction in all states not possessed
+by the enemy filled rapidly, and the class of conscripts on the whole
+was fairly good. By early summer they began to arrive in Richmond and
+"Camp Lee"--the station where they were collected--became a point
+equally of curiosity to the exempt and of dread to the liable.
+
+It was curious to note the prevalence of the various state-traits,
+showing in the squads of conscripts from time to time passing through
+the city. The sturdy farmers from the interior, especially those from
+Virginia, Georgia and Alabama, though lacking the ease and careless
+carriage of the veteran soldier, had a determined port that spoke for
+their future usefulness. They were not merry naturally. Called from
+accustomed avocations and leaving behind them families defenseless and
+without means of support, they could scarcely have marched gaily, even
+when willingly, into the Carnival of Death. But they were resolute men,
+earnest in their love for the South and honest in their wish to serve
+her--with the musket, if that were better than the plough.
+
+Tall and lank, but long-limbed and muscular, the Georgians had a
+swinging stride of their own; and, even when the peculiar dialect did
+not ring out over their ranks, something in their general style gave
+the idea that these were the men who would one day be fellow-soldiers
+of the famous "fighting Third."
+
+Ever and anon came a dejected, weary squad with slouching gait and
+clayey complexions. Speaking little and then with a flat, unintoned
+drawl that told of the vicinage of "salt marsh;" bearing the seeds of
+rice-field fevers still in them, and weakly wondering at the novel
+sights so far from home, the South Carolina conscripts were not a
+hopeful set of soldiers. As soon as the tread of hostile battalions had
+echoed on her soil, the sons of the Palmetto State flew to their posts.
+State regulars went to the coast, picked volunteer corps came to
+Virginia. None stayed behind but those really needed there by the
+Government, or that refuse class which had determined to dodge duty,
+but now failed to dodge "the conscript man." The former were, of
+course, as much needed now as ever; the latter did not ride into the
+battle with defiance on their brows, but, on the contrary, seemed
+looking over their shoulders to find a hole in the mesh that implacable
+conscription had drawn about them.
+
+Their next neighbors of the Old North State were hardly better in the
+main, but some men among them seemed not unlike the militia that had
+fought so well at Roanoke Island. Green and awkward; shrinking away
+from the chaff of passing regulars; looking a little sheepish for being
+conscripts, "Zeb Vance's boys" yet proved not unworthy the
+companionship of the men of Bethel, of Manassas and of Richmond.
+
+At first the border states, or those overrun by the enemy, gave few
+additions to the conscript camps.
+
+Kentucky, on whose adherence and solid aid to the cause such reliance
+had been placed in the beginning, had sadly failed to meet it. With the
+reminiscences of her early chivalry, her romantic warfare of the "Dark
+and Bloody Ground," and the warlike habits of her men, mingled
+considerations of the usefulness of her vast resources and her natural
+points for defense, lying so near the Federal territory. But as the war
+wore on and the state still wavered, the bent of her people seemed
+strangely to incline to the northern side. Seeking a neutrality that
+was clearly impossible, the division in her councils admitted the
+Federals within her borders. Then, when it was hopeless to do more, the
+noblest and most honored of her sons left Kentucky and ranged
+themselves under that banner they had in vain sought to unfurl over
+her.
+
+Like Maryland, Kentucky had early formed a _corps d' elite_, called the
+"State Guard," which numbered many of the best-born and most cultured
+young men of the state, with headquarters at Louisville. This was
+commanded by General S. B. Buckner and under the general control of
+Governor Magoffin. This corps was supposed to represent the feelings of
+all better citizens in its opposition to the Union cause.
+
+But when the action of political schemers--aided by the designs of a
+money-loving and interested populace--laid Kentucky, like Maryland,
+bound hand and foot at the feet of the Federal government; when the
+Union council of the state strove to disarm or put them in the Union
+ranks, the soldiers of the "State Guard" left unhesitatingly and joined
+the army of the South in large numbers.
+
+Late in November, 1861, a convention had met; and, declaring all bonds
+with the Union dissolved, passed a formal Ordinance of Secession and
+sent delegates to ask admission from the Richmond Congress. A month
+later Kentucky was formally declared a member of the Confederacy; but
+before that time Buckner and Breckinridge had received the commissions,
+with which they were to win names as proud as any in the bright array
+of the South; a Kentucky brigade--whose endurance and valiant deeds
+were to shed a luster on her name that even the acts of her recreant
+sons could not dim--were in General Johnston's van; some of her ablest
+and most venerable statesmen had given up honors and home for the
+privilege of being freemen! All the South knew that the admission of
+the state was but an empty form--powerless alike to aid their cause, or
+to wrest her from the firm grasp the Federal government had set upon
+her.
+
+At the time of the first conscription the few men left in Kentucky, who
+had the will, could not make their way into Confederate camps; far less
+could the unwilling be forced to come.
+
+Tennessee, also, had been a source of uneasiness to the Richmond
+Government from the spread of Union tendencies among a portion of her
+inhabitants. Though she had been a member of the Confederacy near a
+year, still the half civilized and mountainous portions of her
+territory, known as East Tennessee, had done little but annoy the army
+near it, by petty hostilities and even by a concerted plan for burning
+all the railroad bridges in that section and thus crippling
+communications.
+
+Fortunately this scheme had been frustrated, and the half-savage
+population--for the better class of Tennesseeans were almost unanimous
+in expression of loyalty to the South--kept in subjection.
+
+But now with her soil overrun by Federal soldiers, and with a Federal
+fleet in every river, the state could not respond to the call of the
+South; and, of course, the soldiers she yielded the conscription were
+from the narrow tracts in Confederate possession only.
+
+One hears much of the "Union feeling" in the South during the war.
+Immediately on its close, a rank crop of "southern loyalists" had
+sprung up in many quarters; basking in the rays of the Freedmen's
+Bureau and plentifully manured with promises and brotherly love by the
+open-mouthed and close-fisted philanthropy of New England. But like all
+dunghill products, the life of these was ephemeral. Its root struck no
+deeper than the refuse the war had left; and during its continuance the
+genus was so little known that a Carlyle, or a Brownlow, was looked
+upon with the same curiosity and disgust as a very rare, but a very
+filthy, exotic.
+
+With the exceptions of portions of Kentucky and Tennessee, no parts of
+the South were untrue to the government they had accepted.
+
+Florida was called "loyal" and General Finnegan proved with what truth.
+"Loyal" Missouri has written her record in the blood of Price's ragged
+heroes. Louisiana, crushed by the iron heel of military power, spoiled
+of her household gods and insulted in her women's name, still bowed not
+her proud head to the flag that had thus become hostile.
+
+And the Valley of Virginia! Ploughed by the tramp of invading
+squadrons--her fair fields laid waste and the sanctity of her every
+household invaded--alternately the battle-ground of friend and
+foe--where was her "loyalty?"
+
+Pinched for her daily food, subsidized to-day by the enemy and freely
+giving to-morrow to their own people--with farming utensils destroyed
+and barns bursting with grain burned in wanton deviltry--the people of
+the Valley still held to the allegiance to the flag they loved; and the
+last note of the southern bugle found as ready echo in their hearts as
+in the first days of the invasion--
+
+    "Their foes had found enchanted ground--
+      But not a knight asleep!"
+
+In possibly one or two instances, the official reports of invading
+generals may have been in some slight degree erroneous; newspaper
+correspondents are not in every instance absolutely infallible; and
+perhaps it was more grateful to the tender sensibilities of the war
+party at the North to feel that there were hearts of brothers beating
+for them in the glare of burning rooftrees, or swelling with still more
+loyal fervor to the cry of the insulted wife!
+
+But at this day--when the clap-trap of war has died away with the roll
+of its drums; when reason may in some sort take the place of partisan
+rage--not one honest and informed thinker in the North believes that
+"loyal" feeling ever had deep root anywhere among the southern masses;
+or that "loyal citizens" were as one in ten thousand!
+
+Whole communities may have murmured; there may have been "schism in the
+council and robbery in the mart;" demagogues may have used wild
+comparisons and terrible threats about the Government; staunch and
+fearless newspapers may have boldly exposed its errors and mercilessly
+lashed its weak or unworthy members; some men may have skulked and
+dodged from their rightful places in the battle's front!
+
+But, however misplaced the world's verdict may declare their
+zeal--however great the error for which they fought and suffered and
+died--no man to-day dare refuse to the southern people the need of
+their unparalleled constancy!
+
+Even conquered--manacled and gagged by the blind and blood-thirsty
+faction in power--the southern people held on to the small fragments
+of rights left them, with brave tenacity. Willing to accept that
+arbitration to which they had submitted their cause, and ready to
+suffer with the bright memories of their past, rather than efface them
+by signing their own degradation.
+
+They were conquered and bound in the flesh, but there was enough of
+manhood left in the spirit to say--
+
+    "Though you conquer us, men of the North, know ye not
+      What fierce, sullen hatred lurks under the scar?
+    How loyal to Hapsburg is Venice, I wot!
+      How dearly the Pole loves 'his father'--the Czar!"
+
+No more singular sight was presented by all the war than the conscript
+depot at Richmond. The men from the "camps of instruction" in the
+several states--after a short sojourn to learn the simplest routine of
+the camp, and often thoroughly untaught in the manual even--were sent
+here to be in greater readiness when wanted. Such officers as could be
+spared were put in charge of them, and the cadets of the Virginia
+Military Institute were employed as drill officers.
+
+Citizens of various states--young, old, honest and vicious alike--the
+conscripts were crowded together in camp, left to their own devices
+enough to make them learn to live as soldiers; and put through constant
+drill and parade to accustom them to the use of arms.
+
+Almost every variety of costume obtained among them. The butternut
+jacket with blue pants of the Federal soldier, the homespun shirt with
+the cast-off pants of some lucky officer; and the black broadcloth
+frock and jauntily-cut pants that some friendly lady had ransacked her
+absent one's stores to give, all appeared on dress parade; surmounted
+by every variety of head gear, from the straw hat of many seasons to
+the woolen night-cap the good "marm" had knitted.
+
+Notwithstanding much work, there was still too much leisure time; and
+"apple jack" filtered its way through provost guards, and cards, the
+greasiest and most bethumbed, wiled many an hour for the unwary and
+verdant.
+
+The lower class of conscripts were almost invariably from the
+cities--the refuse population of the wharf, bar-room and hotel.
+Unwilling to volunteer, these gentry skulked behind every excuse to
+avoid conscription; but when forced off at last, they and the
+substitutes banded in an unholy brotherhood to make the best of their
+position.
+
+Ringleaders in every insubordination and every vice they assumed a
+_degage_, or air of superiority, and fleeced their verdant companions
+of the very clothes they wore; while they made the impure air of the
+camps more foul with ribald jest and profane song.
+
+A single glance segregated this element from the quiet country
+conscripts. The latter were generally gloomy, thinking of the field
+untilled and the wife and little ones, perhaps, unfed. When they drank
+"new dip" it was to drown thought, for the fumes of every stew-pan
+brought back shadowy memories of home and comfort; and when they slept
+on the damp ground--wrapped in the chance rug, or worn scrap of carpet
+charity had bestowed--a sad procession marched through their dreams,
+and sorrowful and starving figures beckoned them from mountain side and
+hamlet.
+
+Great misery and destitution followed the conscription. Large numbers
+of men, called from their fields just as they were most needed, cut
+down greatly the supplies of grain. Almost all who remained at home
+bought their exemption by giving so large a portion of their product to
+Government as to reduce civil supplies still more; and these two facts
+so enhanced the price of food--and so reduced the value of money--that
+the poorer classes rapidly became destitute of all but the barest means
+of life. Whether this was the result of inevitable circumstance, or the
+offspring of mismanagement, in no way affects the fact. Food became
+very hard to procure even at high prices; and the money to get it was
+daily more and more monopolized by a grasping few.
+
+The Confederate soldier now had a double share of toil and torture.
+When the smoke of the fight rolled away, and with it the sustaining
+glow of battle, thought bore him but grim companionship at the camp
+fireside; for he saw famine stalk gaunt and pale through what had been
+his home.
+
+When tidings of want and misery came, he strove to bear them. When he
+heard of burning and outrage--where naught was left to plunder--who may
+wonder that he sometimes fled from duty to his country, to that duty
+more sacred to him of saving his wife and children!
+
+Who does not wonder, rather, in reading the history of those frightful
+days, that desertions were so few--that untutored human nature could
+hide in its depths such constancy and devotion to principle!
+
+But, great as were the privation and the suffering caused by the first
+conscription, they were still to be increased. Through those twin
+abortions of legislation, the substitute and exemption bills, the
+results of the first law proved inadequate to fill the gaps of the
+fatal fights of the summer.
+
+Detail and substitute had done their work, as thoroughly as had the
+shells of Malvern Hill, the bullets of Sharpsburg, or the raw corn of
+the retreat to the river.
+
+More men were wanted! At whatever cost in territory, or in suffering,
+more men must be had. And on the 27th September, Congress passed an
+act extending the age of conscription from 18 to 45 years. But the
+exemption and substitute laws remained as effective as ever. True,
+some feeble moves were made toward narrowing the limits of the former;
+but while it stood a law in any form, enough could be found to read it
+in any way. The extension law, while it still further drained the
+almost exhausted country--and left in its track deeper suffering and
+destitution, that brought famine from a comparative term into an actual
+verity--still left in the cities an able-bodied and numerous class;
+who, if not actually useless, were far more so than the food-producing
+countrymen sent to the front to take their places.
+
+Yet so blind was the Congress--so impervious to the sharpest teachings
+of necessity and so deaf to the voice of common sense and reason, that
+unceasingly upbraided it--that this state of things continued more than
+a year from the passage of the extension act.
+
+Then, when it was almost too late for human aid to save the cause--when
+the enemy had not only surrounded the contracted territory on every
+side, but had penetrated into its very heart--the substitute bill was
+repealed, and every man in the land between the ages of 18 and 45,
+declared a Confederate soldier subject to service. Then, too, the
+abuses of exemption and detail, so often and so clearly pointed out,
+were looked into and measurably corrected.
+
+Further than this, all boys from 16 to 18, and older men, from 45 to
+60, though not conscribed, were formed into reserve "home guards;" and
+then General Grant wrote to Washington that the cause was won when the
+Rebels "robbed the cradle and the grave."
+
+But the infantile and the moribund murmured not; and more than once a
+raid was turned and a sharp skirmish won, when the withered cheek of
+the octogenarian was next the rosy face of the beardless stripling!
+
+Only one complaint came, and that was heard with grim amusement alike
+by veteran, by conscript, and by substitute.
+
+The substitute buyers now loudly raised a wail of anguish. Plethoric
+ledger and overflowing till, alas! must be left; the auctioneer's
+hammer and the peaceful shears must alike be thrown aside, and the
+rusty musket grasped instead; soft beds and sweet dreams of to-morrow's
+profit must be replaced by red mud and the midnight long roll!
+
+It was very bitter; and rising in their wrath, a few of these railed at
+the perfidy of the Government in breaking a contract; and even employed
+counsel to prove that in effect they were already in the field.
+
+One ardent speculator even sought the War Department and logically
+proved that, having sent a substitute, who was virtually himself, and
+that substitute having been killed, he himself was a dead man, from
+whom the law could claim no service!
+
+But the Department was now as deaf as the adder of Scripture; and the
+counsel, let us hope, pleaded not very earnestly. So the substitute
+buyers--except in the few cases where the long finger of influential
+patronage could even now intervene--went, as their ill-gotten dollars
+had gone before.
+
+It is plainly impossible, in limits of a desultory sketch, to give even
+a faint outline of the conscription. Its ramifications were so
+great--the stress that caused it so dire, and the weaknesses and abuses
+that grew out of it so numerous, that a history of them were but a
+history of the war.
+
+Faithfully and stringently carried out, it might have saved the South.
+Loosely constructed and open to abuse, it was still the most potent
+engine the Government had used; and while it failed of its intent, it
+still for the first time caused the invader to be met by anything
+approaching the whole strength of the country.
+
+Under its later workings, every man in the South was a soldier; but
+that consummation, which earlier might have been salvation--came only
+when the throes of death had already begun to seize her vitals.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+WAITING FOR THE ORDEAL BY COMBAT.
+
+
+If any good fruits were to grow from the conscription, the seed had not
+been planted a moment too soon.
+
+The whole power of the Union was now to be exerted against the South;
+and the Washington idea plainly was to lay the ax at the very root of
+the rebellion.
+
+Desultory movement had already begun in the Valley and along the river;
+but it masked in nowise plain indication of the massing of troops for
+another, and a greater, "On to Richmond!"
+
+The separate corps of Banks, Fremont and Shields were hovering about
+the flanks of the devoted Army of Manassas; and the decisive blow was
+evidently to be aimed at that point. But the clear-sighted and
+cool-headed tactician at the head of the bulwark of Virginia saw far
+beyond the blundering war-chess of his antagonist. He prepared to
+checkmate McClellan's whole combination; and suddenly--after weeks of
+quiet preparation, of which the country knew no more than the
+enemy--Manassas was evacuated!
+
+To effect this movement, it was necessary to abandon all the heavy
+river batteries, guarding the Potomac, at immense loss in guns and
+material; and to destroy large quantities of commissary stores, for
+which there was no transportation. But, "Joe Johnston" held the
+movement to be necessary; and, by this time the South had learned to
+accept that what he thought must be correct. The great disparity in
+numbers, and the evident purpose of the Federals to make Richmond the
+focal point of attack, spoke plainly to that perfect soldier the
+necessity--_coute que coute_--of bringing his army within easy striking
+distance of the Capital.
+
+Stonewall Jackson--with Ewell's and Early's divisions of less than ten
+thousand men of all arms--was detached to watch the enemy; and the
+retrograde movement was completed so successfully that McClellan never
+suspected the evacuation. Two days later, his grand array--"an army
+with banners," bands braying and new arms glinting in the sun--moved
+down to the attack; and then, doubtless to his infinite disgust, he
+found only the smoking and deserted _debris_ of the Confederate camp.
+The army he had hoped to annihilate was on its steady and orderly march
+for Richmond.
+
+Immediately, the baffled Federal embarked his entire force and landed
+it on the Peninsula--formed by the junction of the York and James
+rivers--in front of Magruder's fortifications. Failing at the front
+door, McClellan again read Caesar, and essayed the back entrance.
+
+Magruder's line of defense--a long one, reaching entirely across the
+Federal advance--was held by a nominal force, not exceeding 7,500
+effective men. Had this fact been known to its commander, the "grand
+army" might easily have swept this handful before it and marched,
+unopposed, into the Southern Capital. But "Prince John" was a wily and
+bold soldier; and, while he sent to the rear most urgent statements of
+his dire need and pressed the government for re-enforcement, he kept
+his front covered by ceaseless vigilance, constant shifting of his
+thinned battalions and continued active advance skirmishing. So
+effective was this as entirely to deceive the enemy. McClellan sat down
+before him and began to fortify!
+
+Amid the anxiety of that moment and the rapid rush of grave events that
+followed immediately upon it, the great importance of Magruder's
+tactics on the Peninsula has largely been lost sight of. That they were
+simply not to be overestimated, it is tardy justice to state. For,
+there were scores of occasions in those grim four years, when the cant
+went out--"We might have ended the war right here!" It was ever coupled
+with--and nullified by--a large and sonorous "if;" but there is no
+question but that--had Magruder permitted the tactician in his front to
+estimate his weakness--the "Seven days' fights" would never have been
+won, for Richmond would have been lost!
+
+It were impossible to describe accurately the state of public feeling,
+which now prevailed in the Southern Capital. Absolutely in the dark as
+to the actual movement and its consequences; knowing only that their
+cherished stronghold, Manassas, was deserted and its splendid system of
+river batteries left a spoil; hearing only the gloomiest echoes from
+the Peninsular advance and ignorant of Johnston's plans--or even of his
+whereabouts--it was but natural that a gloomy sense of insecurity
+should have settled down upon the masses, as a pall. A dread oppressed
+them that the recent dramas of Nashville and New Orleans were to be
+re-enacted on their own central theater; and, ever barometric, the
+people let the mercury drop to zero, as they read the indications in
+one another's faces. Social pleasures lately so frequent--social
+intercourse almost--were now known no more. The music one heard was the
+quick tap of the timing drum; the only step thought of, the double
+quick to the front.
+
+But gradually, the army that had been manoeuvering about the
+Rappahannock began to arrive; and day and night the endless stream of
+muddy men poured down Main street, in steady tramp for the Peninsula.
+Grim and bronzed they were, those veterans of Manassas; smeared with
+the clay of their camp, unwashed, unkempt, unfed; many ragged and some
+shoeless. But they tramped through Richmond--after their forced
+march--with cheery aspect that put to flight the doubts and fears of
+her people. Their bearing electrified the citizens; and for the moment,
+the rosy clouds of hope again floated above the horizon.
+
+Even the scanty ration the soldiers had become inured to had been
+reduced by necessities of their rapid march; and that knowledge caused
+every corps that passed through to receive substantial tokens of the
+sympathy and good will of the townspeople. Ladies and children thronged
+the sidewalks, pressing on their defenders everything which the scanty
+Confederate larder could supply; while, from many of the houses,
+gloves, socks and comforters rained down upon the worst clad of the
+companies.
+
+"Johnny Reb" was ever a cheerful animal, with a general spice of
+sardonic humor. Thus refreshed, inwardly and outwardly, the men would
+march down the street; answering the waving handkerchiefs at every
+window with wild cheers, swelling sometimes into the indescribable
+"rebel yell!" Nor did they spare any amount of good-natured chaff to
+those luckless stay-at-homes encountered on the streets.
+
+"Come out'r that black coat! I see yer in it!"--"I know ye're a
+conscrip'. Don't yer want 'er go for a sojer?"--"Yere's yer chance ter
+git yer substertoot!"--and like shouts, leveled at the head of some
+unlucky wight, constantly brought roars of laughter from the soldiers
+and from his not sympathetic friends. Passing one house, a pale,
+boyish-looking youth was noted at a window with a lady. Both waved
+handkerchiefs energetically; and the men answered with a yell. But the
+opportunity was too good to lose.
+
+"Come right along, sonny! The lady'll spare yer! Here's a little muskit
+fur ye'!"
+
+"All right, boys!" cheerily responded the youth, rising from his
+seat--"Have you got a leg for me, too?" And Colonel F. stuck the
+shortest of stumps on the window-sill.
+
+With one impulse the battalion halted; faced to the window, and
+spontaneously came to "Present!" as the ringing rebel yell rattled the
+windows of that block. The chord had been touched that the roughest
+soldier ever felt!
+
+Then came the calm; when the last straggler had marched through to the
+front and Johnston's junction with Magruder was accomplished. The rosy
+clouds faded into gray again; and, though the fluttering pulse of
+Richmond beat a little more steadily, it was not entirely normal.
+Rumors came from Yorktown of suffering and discontent. Coupled with
+exaggerations of the really overwhelming force the enemy had massed
+before it, they proved anything but encouraging. Still, there was no
+hopelessness; and the preparations, that had by this time become a
+matter of certainty--stretchers--bandages--lint and coarse, narrow
+sheets--went steadily on.
+
+The brave women of the city were a constant reproach, in their quiet,
+unmurmuring industry, to the not infrequently faint-hearted and
+despondent men. Constantly they worked on, and tried to look cheerfully
+on the future by the light of the past. No one among them but knew that
+real and serious danger threatened; no one among them but believed that
+it would be met as it had been met before--boldly without doubt;
+triumphantly if God willed!
+
+No need for Virginia's sons to read of the Gracchi, with a thousand
+Cornelias working cheerily and faithfully on the hard, tough fabrics
+for them. One day an order came for thirty thousand sand-bags. Never
+before did needles fly so fast, for who could tell but what that very
+bag might stand between death and a heart dearer far than aught else on
+earth. Thirty hours after the order came, the women of Richmond had
+sent the bags to Yorktown!
+
+At length, after three weeks of trying suspense, filled with every
+fantastic shape of doubt and dread, came news of the evacuation of
+Norfolk, the destruction of the iron-clad "Virginia," and of the
+retreat from the Peninsula. Not appreciating the strategical reasons
+for these movements, Richmond lost her temporary quiet and again fell
+to lamenting the dark prospects for the city.
+
+On the 4th of May, the last of the Confederate forces evacuated
+Yorktown; reluctantly turning their backs on the enemy, to take up the
+line of march for Richmond.
+
+Next day McClellan's advance pressed on; and overtaking their rear,
+under Longstreet, began heavy skirmishing to harass it, near
+Williamsburg. Seeing the necessity of checking too vigorous pursuit,
+and of teaching the Federals a lesson, Longstreet made a stand; and,
+after a severe conflict--in which he inflicted much heavier loss than
+he sustained, besides capturing several field pieces and colors--again
+took up his march unmolested.
+
+The battle of Williamsburg was the one brilliant episode of that gloomy
+retreat. Although the main army could not be checked to give him
+re-enforcement, and his wounded had to be left in the hands of the
+enemy, Longstreet had gained a decided and effective success. But this
+one misfortune for the moment dimmed the luster of his achievement in
+the eyes of the Richmond people; and, perhaps, prevented much of the
+good effect its decisive character might otherwise have had.
+
+The appearance of the army, after the retreat from Williamsburg, did
+not tend to cheer the inexpert. First came squads of convalescent sick,
+barely able to march, who had been sent ahead to save the ambulances
+for those worse than they. It was a black Sunday afternoon, when those
+wan and hollow-eyed men limped painfully through the streets on their
+weary way to Camp Winder Hospital. Weak--mud-encrusted and utterly
+emaciated--many of them fell by the roadside; while others thankfully
+accepted the rough transportation of any chance wagon, or cart, that
+could carry them to the rest they yearned for.
+
+But willing and energetic workers were at hand. Orders were obtained;
+and carriages returning from church, hotel omnibuses--every wheeled
+thing upon the streets were impressed for the service of mercy. By late
+afternoon the wards of Winder Hospital were over-flowing; but
+negligent, or overworked, commissaries had neglected to provide food,
+and many of the men--in their exhausted condition--were reported dying
+of starvation! Few women in Richmond dined that Sabbath. Whole
+neighborhoods brought their untasted dinners to the chief worker among
+them; and carriages and carts--loaded with baskets and hampers and
+bearing a precious freight of loving womanhood--wended their way to the
+hospital. By night hundreds of poor fellows had eaten such food as they
+had not dreamed of for months; gentle hands had smoothed their pillows
+and proffered needed stimulants; and sympathizing voices had bid them
+be of good cheer, for to-morrow would dawn bright for all.
+
+But were these worn and wretched men a fair sample of the army that was
+to battle for their dear city against the fresh thousands of McClellan?
+Oh, God! Had toil and privation done its work so thoroughly; and were
+these the proud array that had marched to Manassas--the hardened, but
+gallant host that had gone gaily to Yorktown? Were these the only
+dependence of their hopes and their cause?
+
+Sad and troubled were the hearts that beat that day, around the
+wretched cots of the sufferers. But never a hand trembled--never a
+voice faltered, as those grand women wrought on at their mission of
+mercy.
+
+After these came a few stragglers and camp followers in hardly better
+plight; then the wagon trains; and, finally, the army.
+
+The roads were in wretched condition. Spring rains and constant use had
+churned them into liquid red mud. Hungry and worn, the men struggled
+through it day after day--bearing their all on their backs, unable to
+halt for cooking; and frequently stopped to labor on a broken-down
+battery, or a mired wagon. Discipline naturally relaxed. It was
+impossible to keep the weary and half-starved men to regular routine.
+They straggled into Richmond muddy--dispirited--exhausted; and,
+throwing themselves on cellar doors and sidewalks, slept heavily,
+regardless of curious starers that collected around every group.
+
+Never had the Southern army appeared half so demoralized; half so unfit
+to cope with the triumphant and well-appointed brigades pressing close
+upon it. Had McClellan been at hand, there is little doubt as to what
+the result would have been; but a few days sufficed to change the
+appearance of the whole army fabric.
+
+Renewed discipline--that magnetic "touch of the elbow"--attention to
+the commissariat and the healthy location of their new camping grounds
+brought the men back to good condition in a time wonderfully short to
+the lookers-on in the city.
+
+But they were to have little rest. McClellan advanced to the Chickahominy
+and strongly fortified his position. Johnston fronted him; and though
+too weak to attack at this moment, it became apparent that the first
+move in the game for the great stake must be made in a few days. And it
+was equally plain that it was to be made under the loving eyes of those
+all fought best for; within hearing of the Cabinet itself!
+
+The details of the campaign of this eventful summer are too well
+known--and have been too minutely and eloquently described, even were
+there space--for me to attempt their repetition here.
+
+For a week the armies faced each other, plainly in sight; the shrill
+notes of "Dixie" mingling with the brazen strains from the Federal
+bands; and yet no movement was made. Once more Richmond assumed her old
+activity and became a vast camp. Busy looking officers hastened from
+point to point; regiments shifting position passed through town every
+hour; mounted orderlies dashed in all directions and batteries, wagon
+trains and ambulances rumbled in and out of town by every road. The
+reflection of the activity around them, and the improved condition of
+the army--in physique and morale--inspired the people; and they once
+more began to feel hopeful, if not overconfident.
+
+Still the river was undefended. There was no fort. Only a few water
+batteries--out of which the men could easily be shelled--and a few
+useless wooden gunboats protected the water approach to the Capital. Up
+this the heavy fleet of Federal iron-clads was even now carefully
+sounding its way. Every means had been taken to wake the Government to
+the necessity of obstructing the river; but either carelessness, or the
+confusion consequent on the retreat, had rendered them unavailing. Now
+at the last moment, every nerve was strained to block the river and to
+mount a few guns on Drewry's bluff--a promontory eighty feet high,
+overhanging a narrow channel some nine miles below the city.
+
+On the 15th of May, the iron-clads approached the still unfinished
+obstructions. There was just time to sink the "Jamestown"--one of the
+wooden shells that had done such good work under the gallant Barney--in
+the gap; to send her crew and those of the "Virginia" and "Patrick
+Henry" to man the three guns mounted on the hill above--when the
+iron-clads opened fire.
+
+Their cannonade was terrific. It cut through the trees and landed the
+missiles a mile inland. The roar of the heavy guns, pent and echoed
+between the high banks, was like continuous thunder, lit by lurid
+flashes as they belched out 13-inch Shrapnel and scattered ounce balls
+like hail among the steadfast gunners on the bluff.
+
+But the terrible plunging fire of Captain Farrand's sea-dogs damaged
+the plating of the armored vessels and kept the wooden ones out of
+range; while the galling sharp-shooting of Taylor Wood's men, on the
+banks below, cleared their decks and silenced their guns. Once more the
+wager of battle was decided for the South; and the ironclads retired
+badly damaged.
+
+This result was most cheering; but, unlike the early success of the
+war, it was received with a solemn, wordless thankfulness. Then, when
+the imminent danger was passed, the Government went rapidly to work to
+improve the obstruction and strengthen the battery at Drewry's Bluff.
+This became a permanent fort, admirably planned and armed with navy
+guns, worked by the seamen of the disused vessels. The Federals stuck
+to the name they first gave it--Fort Darling--for no reason, perhaps,
+but because of the tender reminiscences clinging around it.
+
+Then came another season of stillness on the Chickahominy lines, which
+General McClellan improved to protect his rear communications; and to
+throw up strong embrasured fortifications along his whole
+front--indicating his intention to sit down before the city in regular
+siege; or to fight behind his works.
+
+Meantime, the course of the Government would have inspired anything but
+confidence, had not the people placed the deepest and most abiding
+faith in the mettle and truth of their soldiers.
+
+Congress, after weak and more than useless debates on the propriety of
+the step, precipitately adjourned and ran away from the threatened
+danger. These wise legislators had read history. They felt that the
+cackling which saved Rome was but one of the miracles of that
+philosophic Muse who teaches by experience: and that--as they could not
+save their city--they had better save themselves.
+
+The Departments were packed in case of necessity for flight; and some
+of the archives were even put on board canal boats and towed beyond the
+city. This may have been only a just precaution; but the citizens of
+Richmond--looking upon its defense as the key to all further
+resistance--saw in it only acceptance of the worst results; and, when
+the families of the principal officials and officers fled from the
+Capital and sought safer homes in North Carolina and Georgia, her
+people would not accept as the real reason the averred necessity for
+saving the very small amount of provision they consumed.
+
+But the Legislature of Virginia and the City Council of Richmond met
+and resolved that they were willing to stand any loss of property and
+life--even the destruction of the city--before giving it up to the
+enemy. They waited upon the President and so explained to him. Mr.
+Davis solemnly announced his resolution to defend the position while a
+man remained; and to cast his fate with that of a people who could act
+so bravely.
+
+Still, so doubtful was the issue of the contest held by the lukewarm,
+or cowardly, few that they hesitated not to express their belief that
+the war was done; and they stored in secret places quantities of
+tobacco to be used as currency when the invaders came in!
+
+When the _dies irae_ really came; and burning Richmond sent similarly
+hidden store,
+
+    "With the smoke of its ashes to poison the gale"--
+
+little was the sympathy borne on the breeze for them, who--living
+early enough--had shamed the money-changers scourged from the Temple!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+AROUND RICHMOND.
+
+
+In the dead stillness of the afternoon of May 30th, the dull thunder of
+artillery and the crackling roll of musketry were distinctly heard in
+every house in Richmond.
+
+Deep and painful suspense filled all hearts; until at night it was
+known that the enemy had been driven back and badly punished.
+
+The history of "Seven Pines" is familiar to all. Some days previous,
+General Keyes' division had been thrown across the Chickahominy, for
+the purpose of feeling the Confederate lines and throwing up works that
+would secure the Federals that stream. The river, swelled by recent
+rains, rose so suddenly as to endanger Keyes' communications with his
+rear; and Johnston determined to attack, while he could thus strike in
+detail. The miscarriage of part of his plan--by which Huger's troops
+did not join the attack--and his own wound, by a piece of shell, late
+in the afternoon, alone prevented Johnston's utter destruction of this
+Federal corps. As it was, the enemy was driven two miles back of his
+camp. Heavily re-enforced next day, he resisted and drove back a
+desperate attack about Fair Oaks.
+
+Now, for the first time, the people of Richmond began to see the
+realities of war. When the firing began, many ladies were at work for
+the soldiers in the churches. These flocked to the doors, pale and
+anxious, but with a steady determination in their faces, vainly looked
+for in many of the men. Gradually wagons and ambulances began to come
+in; slowly at first, toward nightfall more rapidly--each one bearing
+some faint and suffering form. Then, and not till then, those women
+left their other work and tended the wounded men; giving "the little
+cup of water" so precious to them, speaking brave words of cheer while
+their very souls grew sick at the unwonted sight of blood and
+suffering.
+
+One poor old man, dirty and ragged, lay in a rough, springless cart;
+his hard, shoeless feet dropping out at its back, and his long, gray
+beard drenched in the blood that welled from his chest at every jolt.
+By his side, in the gathering twilight, walked one of Richmond's
+fairest daughters; her gentle voice smoothing the rough way to the
+hospital, and her soft hand wiping the damps from his forehead.
+
+And there was no romance in it. _He_ could not be conjured into a fair
+young knight--old, dirty, vulgar as he was. But he had fought for
+her--for the fair city she loved better than life--and the gayest rider
+in all that band were not more a hero to her!
+
+Next morning the usual stillness of Sunday was broken by the renewed
+rattle of musketry--though farther off and less continuous than the day
+before; and by the more constant and nearer rumble of ambulance and
+dead cart. At dawn many of the townspeople had gone in buggies, wagons,
+and even the huge vans of the express companies, taking with them food
+and stimulants, to aid the very limited ambulance corps of the army.
+
+All day long the sad procession came in. Here a van with four or five
+desperately wounded stretched on its floor; now a buggy with a faint
+and bandaged form resting on the driver; again the jolting coal cart
+with the still, stiff figure, covered by the blanket and not needing
+the rigid upturned feet to tell the story. The hospitals were soon
+overcrowded; huge tobacco warehouses had been hastily fitted up and as
+hastily filled; while dozens of surgeons, bare-armed and bloody,
+flitted through them, doing what man might to relieve the fearful havoc
+man had made.
+
+Women of all ranks and of all ages crowded to them, too; some wan and
+haggard, seeking with tearless suspense the dear one they knew to have
+been stricken down; some bearing baskets of stimulants and nourishing
+food; but one and all eager and willing
+
+    "To do for those dear ones what woman
+                Alone in her pity can do."
+
+The struggle had been brief but bitter. Most of the wounds were above
+the waist, for the fighting had been among undergrowth and partly
+against _abatis_; but the short-range volleys had mowed the men down by
+ranks. More warerooms and even stores on the Main street were opened,
+fitted with bunks, and filled with the maimed and suffering.
+
+At all hours, day and night, the passer down Main street would see
+through the open doors long, even rows of white bunks, each one bearing
+some form distorted with agony, or calmly passing away; while the
+tireless surgeon moved from cot to cot. And at the head of each a
+still, patient form, almost motionless, waved the ceaseless fan or
+breathed the low promise of the Living Word, to one who trembled on the
+verge of the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
+
+The war was at the very gates now. These palpable witnesses were too
+numerous to doubt. But the lips of every gaping wound spoke an eloquent
+pledge that, while such as these kept watch and ward, the city was
+safe.
+
+Little by little the hospitals thinned; the slightly wounded went back
+to duty and the badly hurt began to hobble about. But on every hand
+were the gaunt, sad forms stretched on the narrow cots over which Life
+and Death wrestled for the mastery. And still the tireless love of
+woman watched by them--and still unworded prayers went up that the
+Destroyer might not prevail.
+
+The stillness that followed "Seven Pines" was not unbroken. The armies
+were so near together that the least movement of either brought on a
+collision, and constant skirmishing went on. Not a day but had its
+miniature battle; and scarce an hour but added to the occupants of the
+hospitals. As these conflicts most frequently resulted in a Confederate
+success, they only served to encourage the people, and to bring them to
+the high pitch necessary for the prolonged note of war that was soon to
+sound so near them.
+
+Just a month after the repulse of the iron-clads from Drewry's Bluff,
+the bold and daring "Pamunkey Raid" still further aided in this effect.
+General J. E. B. Stuart had by his successful conduct of the cavalry,
+no less than by his personal gallantry, worked his way from the
+colonelcy he held at Manassas to a major-generalcy of all that arm of
+the Virginia army. He had gained the confidence of General Lee and the
+greatest popularity in and out of the army; and, ably seconded by his
+brigadiers, "Jeb Stuart" was expected to do great deeds in the coming
+campaign.
+
+Information being desired of the enemy on certain points, he
+volunteered to obtain it. With the advice and direction of the
+commanding-general, Stuart started from Richmond; made his
+reconnaissance; penetrated to the White House on the Pamunkey and
+burned the depot there; whipped the enemy's cavalry wherever he met
+them; and, making a complete circuit of the Federal rear, with all his
+captured men and horses, rode back into the city in triumph.
+
+Whatever may be said of raids in the abstract, this was certainly a
+most dashing one; and was received with loud acclamation by army and
+people. The latter were by this time in better spirit to receive
+encouragement; and, dazzled by its brilliance, rather than weighing its
+solid advantages, placed this achievement perhaps above the more useful
+success at Williamsburg.
+
+Then came the news from the Valley.
+
+That wonderful campaign--which far exceeds in strategic power,
+brilliant dash and great results any other combination of the war--had
+been fought and won! It has been justly compared, by a competent and
+eloquent critic, to Napoleon's campaign in Italy; and--paling all his
+other deeds--it clearly spoke Stonewall Jackson the Napoleon of the
+South.
+
+Coolly looking back at its details, the thinker even now is struck with
+respectful wonder.
+
+Hurling his little force against Front Royal; flashing to Winchester
+and routing Banks; slipping between the close converging lines of
+Fremont and Shields--just in time to avoid being crushed between
+them--and bearing with him miles of wagon train and spoils; turning on
+the pursuing columns of Fremont, driving him back, and then sweeping
+Shields from his path like chaff--Jackson clears his way and marches on
+for Richmond!
+
+Still onward, scarcely halting for food or rest--ever on to strike new
+terror when thought far away; weary, footsore--with scarcely one-half
+its former number, but flushed with victory and panting for further
+fame--the little band toils on, passes around Richmond and, just as the
+opposing cannon begin their last grim argument for her possession, hurl
+themselves like an Alpine torrent on the flank of the enemy!
+
+The loss in this wonderful campaign was comparatively small, when we
+consider the rapidity of the movements; the terrible marches and the
+stubborn fighting against overwhelming numbers.
+
+But there was one place vacant that none could fill. There was one name
+that brought the cloud to the brow of the giddiest youth, or the tear
+to the eye of the toughest veteran in those sturdy ranks; one name that
+stilled the song on the march and hushed the rough gossip of the
+bivouac to a saddened whisper. Turner Ashby was dead!
+
+True knight--doughty leader--high-hearted gentleman--he had fallen when
+the fighting was well-nigh over--his _devoir_ nobly done and his name
+as stainless as the bright blade he ever flashed foremost in the fight!
+
+Chivalric--lion-hearted--strong armed--
+
+    "Well they learned, whose hands have slain him,
+      Braver, knightlier foe
+    Never fought 'gainst Moor or Paynim--
+      Rode at Templestowe!"
+
+All the country missed Ashby. But Virginia mourned him most; and among
+her stricken sons, those hard-handed, ragged heroes of Jackson's _Old
+Guard_--who had marched the furthest and fought the hardest following
+him--were the chiefest mourners. Jackson had reared a noble monument,
+to be viewed from all the dimmest vistas of the future. But the fair
+column was shattered near its top; and the laurel leaves that twined it
+were mingled with evergreen cypress.
+
+Then the strained suspense was broken. On the 26th of June began that
+memorable series of fights that northern and southern history--voluminous
+reports of generals and detailed accounts of newspapers, have made
+familiar to all who care to read of battles.
+
+A. P. Hill's steady attack at Mechanicsville, though at great cost,
+drove the enemy's right wing back; to be struck next morning on the
+flank by Jackson and sent, after a sullen and bloody resistance, to the
+works near Gaines' Mill. Still on the barefooted boys press with
+resistless rush, leaving dead or mangled brothers and writhing foemen
+in their gory track! Never pausing to look back, but each successive
+day driving the enemy at the bayonet's point from works frowning with
+cannon.
+
+Cold Harbor has told its brilliant story. Frasier's Farm is fought and
+won!
+
+With ranks fearfully thinned, scant of food and pausing not to rest,
+the struggling men press on--ever on! Weary and faltering on the march,
+the first sharp crack of the rifle lights a new fire in every eye; and
+drinking the hot breath of the battle,
+
+    "Stalwart, they court like Anak's sons
+        The rapture of the fight!"
+
+The tide of the battle swung round and the retreating army of
+McClellan--fighting steadily by day and retreating noiselessly in the
+night--fronted from the city which now lay on its left flank.
+
+The Federals were neither demoralized, nor panic struck, as has been
+sometimes believed; and such an error, while it has bloody refutation
+in the nameless graves that make the track of these fights precious to
+the southron--does less than justice to the constancy and enduring
+valor of the little army that wrung the victory from them at such
+fearful cost.
+
+Their retreat was orderly and steady. Driven each day from works on
+which they relied--marking their path with untold destruction of
+munitions, supplies and even of food on which they depended--the
+soldiers of the North were well held together; never refusing to turn
+and face the resistless foe that hurled itself against them, careless
+alike of cannon and steel, weariness and death!
+
+There can be little doubt now of the consummate tact of McClellan's
+retreat. It is _the_ bright page in the northern annals of strategy.
+Beaten each day and driven from his well-chosen strongholds--clearly
+chosen with a view to such necessities--he still held his army
+thoroughly in his grasp and carried it off in such order as no Federal
+force had yet preserved in the face of retreat. Only the resistless
+impetuosity of the southern troops drove all before them; and though
+careful analysis may prove in theory that, but for the blunder of a
+subordinate, Lee could one day have utterly destroyed him, this fact
+should not detract, in the impartial mind, from the great ability of
+McClellan which really prevented it.
+
+Still, up to the last bloody day at Malvern Hill, the city lay open to
+the Federal general had he known the truth. Between him and the coveted
+prize was a mere handful of men, who could have offered but slight
+resistance to his overwhelming numbers; the main army of defense was in
+his front, further away than many points of his retreat; and, had he
+fully understood the position, a bold and dashing stroke of generalship
+might have turned the scale, spite of all the red successes of southern
+arms. More than once in the "Seven Days" a rapid march by the flank
+would have put McClellan in possession of the Capital and secured him
+in its strong defenses; from which the wearied troops of Lee could
+scarcely have ejected him.
+
+But it was not to be. When the shattered and torn Confederates drew
+off, like lions at bay, from the horrid slopes of Malvern Hill--leaving
+them drenched with priceless blood and piled thick with near one-third
+their number--McClellan declined further battle and withdrew his beaten
+army to the fleet.
+
+He had made a great retreat. But he had lost his great stake.
+
+When the armies lay at Mechanicsville, both were plainly visible from
+many points in the city. From the Capitol, miles of encampment could be
+seen, spreading out like a map; and in the dusk the red flash of each
+gun and the fiery trail of its fatal messenger were painfully distinct.
+The evening before Hill's advance, the poet-librarian of the Capitol
+was pointing out the localities to a company of officers and ladies.
+Among them was a lady who had suffered much in the flesh and been
+driven from her home for brave exertions in that cause, which was in
+the end to leave her widowed spirit with no hope on this side of the
+narrow house. A terrific thunderstorm had just passed over the hostile
+hosts; but the dense masses of cloud had rolled away to the river,
+leaving it in deep shadow, while a bright reflection from the sunset
+wrapped both camps in a veil of mellow light. Not a shot disturbed the
+still peacefulness of the scene, to give token of the wild work already
+shaped out for the next week. Suddenly a glorious rainbow shaped itself
+in the transparent mist over the Confederate camp, spanning it from end
+to end. The lady pointed it to the poet.
+
+"I hail the omen!" she said. "It is a token of God's promise that
+yonder flood will not overwhelm us! That His hand will be raised as of
+old, to hurl it back from His chosen people!"
+
+And when the omen was accomplished and Richmond was safe, the poet sent
+the lady those classic lines so well-known in the South--"The Battle
+Rainbow."
+
+Next afternoon the great fight began. The sharp, quick rattle of small
+arms, and the dull incessant boom of artillery told of hot work even
+nearer than "Seven Pines." So sharp and clear were the reports that it
+seemed the fight must be on the very edge of town; and the windows
+rattled at every discharge.
+
+Almost every man, worthy of the name, was at the front; but the brave
+and steadfast women of Richmond collected in groups and--while they
+listened with blanched faces and throbbing hearts--still tried to cheer
+and comfort each other.
+
+They spoke of the past; of their faith in the flower of the South at
+that moment battling for them; and they heard the sound of the cannon
+growing farther and fainter, only to feel more loving trust in those
+who, under God, had saved them from that chiefest of ills!
+
+Day by day, as the tide of battle surged farther off, it sent into
+Richmond cheering news that nerved afresh these brave hearts for the
+horror to come. Gaines' Mill, Cold Harbor and Frasier's Farm rolled
+back their echoes of triumph; news came of the strait into which
+McClellan was driven and that one day more must see him a prisoner in
+the city he had dared--his splendid host swept away and destroyed.
+Finally the news of Malvern Hill--the wild shout of battle scarce
+drowning the death-cry--sent a thrill of mingled agony and pride to
+their very heart's core.
+
+But day by day, as the red tide rolled back, it swept into Richmond
+terrible fragments of the wreck it had made. Every conveyance that
+could follow the army, or could be pressed from the almost stripped
+country around it, bore in from the River Road its load of misery.
+Manassas had hinted the slaughter of a great fight; Seven Pines had
+sketched all the hard outlines of the picture; but the Seven Days put
+in the dismal shadows, with every variation of grotesque horror.
+
+In the dearth of transportation and the hurry of onward movement, many
+had been left for days with stiffening wounds on the field, or
+roadside. Others had undergone the loss of limbs at field hospitals;
+some were bent and distorted in their agony; and again the stiff, set
+jaw and wide, glassy eye, told that the journey was over before the end
+was reached.
+
+The chain of regular hospitals and even the temporary one--nearly
+emptied since Seven Pines--now rapidly filled and overflowed. Private
+houses swung wide their doors and took in wounded men--brothers alike
+if gentle-blooded Louisianian, or hard-handed mountainmen--and the
+women, one and all, wrought as if their energies had never before been
+taxed or even tested.
+
+But a black shadow had come and brooded deep over Richmond. Half the
+gentle forms gliding noiselessly among the suffering were draped in
+black; and many a pale face was saddened with an anguish deeper than
+furrowed those resting on the coarse pillows around.
+
+The fight was won. The enemy that had for months flaunted his victorious
+flag in full sight of the Capitol was baffled and beaten. New glories
+had clustered round the flag of the South; new quarrels and doubts had
+been sent to the North. Lee, Jackson, Longstreet, the Hills and Hood
+had added fresh laurels to brows believed to have room for no leaf
+more. Almost every officer had proved himself worthy of the prayers of
+such women as the South owned--of that even higher glory of leading
+such troops as fought to defend them.
+
+But at what awful cost had all this been bought! The slaughter of their
+nearest and dearest had been terrific: women, the highest and lowliest,
+met by the cot of the sufferer; and, in the free masonry of love,
+tended the living and comforted each other for their dead.
+
+But through the brave endeavor of their sacred office, these noble
+sisters of mercy showed no yielding to the claims of self. Over their
+own sorrows they rose triumphant--tended the faint--cheered the
+despondent--filling the place of wife and mother to those who should
+nevermore see home--even while
+
+    "The air is filled with farewells to the dying
+      And wailings for the dead;
+    The voice of Rachel for her children crying
+      Can not be comforted."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+ECHO OF SEVEN DAYS, NORTH AND SOUTH.
+
+
+The result of the "Seven Days" was to produce a profound joyousness in
+the South, which lightened even those deep shadows from the sorrows
+that had fallen upon individuals; to raise the spirits of the whole
+people and to send into every heart that loved the cause a glow of
+confident pride in the southern soldier--chastened somewhat by present
+sorrow and tempered, perhaps, by the lessons of the past--that nothing
+in their after misfortunes could quench.
+
+But while it taught the people this, the victory taught the Government
+that no energy could be too great--no watchfulness misplaced, in
+preparing for the heavy blows of the northern government at all times,
+and at any point, to carry out its pet scheme of reducing the southern
+Capital.
+
+The blatant triumph that had followed other victories and the secure
+apathy of the southern government, had alike been swept away by that
+terrific surge of battle, rolled back harmlessly, only when on the
+point of overwhelming us; and in their stead came the deep-seated
+resolve to _act_ in the present, even while they _dreamed_ in the
+future.
+
+In the North, a hoarse roar of rage went up. The good behavior of their
+troops and the great ability of their general--unquestioned even by the
+men who had steadily fought and doggedly driven him before them--were
+both lost sight of in the wild wail that went up over--the cost!
+
+Millions upon millions had been spent in equipping the grand army--all
+wasted now in that futile effort to conquer the Rebel Capital--offered
+as a burnt offering to the avenging War God; and only the blood of its
+thousands to manure the fields in front of the coveted city!
+
+There was a howl of malediction against the only general so far
+tried--who had proved himself a tactician in anything but name; and as
+part of its policy the northern government shamelessly sacrificed
+McClellan, while it could not but unhesitatingly acknowledge his merit.
+
+Unlike the South, the North throughout the whole war bent its every
+energy toward concentrating the most useful elements among its many
+parties. Seeming to bend to the will of each; propitiating all popular
+elements and utilizing all able ones; listening patiently to the
+mouthing of demagogues and the vituperation of the press; distributing
+its contracts so as to make every dollar of patronage tell; and
+handling the great engine, Wall street, in masterly style--the
+Washington government simply collected and sifted the varied mass of
+opinion and material--to form from it a composite amalgam-policy that
+proved its only salvation. Through every change in that policy--through
+every gradation of animus that affected the complexion of the war--the
+masses of the North really believed they were fighting for the
+Constitution--for the flag, and for the Union!
+
+Whether they were so tightly blindfolded as not yet to see their error,
+is no question to be discussed here.
+
+No sooner had the howl gone up through the North, against the General
+who--spite of refused re-enforcements, jealousy and intrigue behind his
+back, and the terrible enemy before him--had saved his army, than the
+Government responded to it. Large numbers of men were sent from
+Harrison's Landing to Acquia Creek; the Federal forces at Warrentown,
+Alexandria and Fredericksburg were mobilized and strengthened; and the
+baton of command was wrenched from the hand of McClellan to be placed
+in that of Major-General John Pope!
+
+The history of this new popular hero, to this time, may be summed up by
+saying that he had been captain of Topographical Engineers; and that
+the books of that bureau showed he had prosecuted his labors with
+perhaps less economy than efficiency.
+
+Rapidly promoted for unknown reasons in the western armies, the public
+hit upon him as the right man at last; and the complaisant Government
+said: "Lo! the man is here!" and made him general-in-chief of the Army
+of Virginia.
+
+From the command of Pope dates a new era in the war. No longer a
+temperate struggle for authority, it became one for conquest and
+annihilation. He boldly threw off the mask that had hitherto concealed
+its uglier features, and commenced a systematic course of pillage and
+petty plundering--backed by a series of curiously bombastic and windy
+orders.
+
+Calmly to read these wonderful effusions--dated from "Headquarters in
+the saddle"--by the light of his real deeds, one could only conceive
+that General Pope coveted that niche in history filled by Thackeray's
+_O'Grady Gahagan_; and that much of his reading had been confined to
+the pleasant rambles of Gulliver and the doughty deeds of Trenck and
+Munchausen.
+
+To sober second thought, the sole reason for his advancement might seem
+his wonderful power as a braggart. He blustered and bragged until the
+North was bullied into admiration; and his sounding boasts that he had
+"only seen the backs of his enemies," and that he had "gone to look for
+the rebel, Jackson"--were really taken to mean what they said. When
+Pope did at last "find the rebel, Jackson," the hopeful public over the
+Potomac began to believe that their truculent pet might have simply
+paraphrased Falstaff, and cried--
+
+    "Lying and thieving have blown me up like a bladder!"
+
+For Jackson gave the bladder a single prick, and lo! it collapsed.
+
+Resting his wearied and shattered troops only long enough to get them
+again into fighting trim, General Lee prepared to check the third great
+advance upon Manassas. Working on the inner line and being thus better
+able to concentrate his strength, he left only enough troops around
+Richmond to delay any advance of McClellan from the Peninsula; and,
+before the end of July, sent Stonewall Jackson--with Ewell's, A. P.
+Hill's, and his own old division under General Charles S. Winder, in
+all about 10,000 men--to frustrate the flatulent designs of the
+gong-sounding commander, whose Chinese warfare was echoing so loudly
+from the frontier.
+
+Cautious, rapid and tireless as ever, Jackson advanced into Culpeper
+county; and on the 9th of August gave the gong-sounder his first lesson
+on the field of Cedar Mountain. Throwing a portion of his force under
+Early on the enemy's flank and bringing Ewell and, later, Winder
+against his front, Jackson forced him from his position after a bloody
+fight, which the advance of A. P. Hill turned into a complete victory.
+
+Cedar Mountain was a sharp and well-contested fight; but the
+Confederates inflicted a loss five times their own, held the field, and
+captured a number of prisoners and guns. General Winder led his troops
+gallantly to the charge, but just at the moment of collision he was
+struck and mortally wounded by a shell. And the unstained spirit of the
+gallant son of Maryland winged its flight, ere the shouts of victory
+could cheer it on its way!
+
+The Washington government at once ordered the remains of McClellan's
+army to General Pope; and massing with them Burnside's army at
+Fredericksburg and the vicinity, strained every nerve to aid his
+successful advance.
+
+But here we may digress for the moment, to take a bird's-eye view of
+matters of grave moment passing in distant quarters of the Confederacy.
+
+While victory had perched upon Confederate banners in Virginia, a heavy
+cloud was gathering over the West; threatening to burst and sweep ruin
+and destruction over the whole trans-Alleghany region. Not dispirited
+by the reverses in Virginia, the northern government remitted nothing
+of its designs upon the West, but rather pushed them toward more rapid
+completion. These designs were to hold the State of Kentucky by the
+army under Buell, wrest from the South the possession of Tennessee and
+Alabama--as a base for attack upon Georgia and cutting through to the
+seaboard; and to push the army under Grant down through Mississippi to
+the Gulf. These movements would not only weaken the Confederacy, by
+diverting so many men, ill to be spared, to watch the various columns;
+but would, moreover, wrest from it the great grain-producing and
+cattle-grazing sections from which the armies were mainly fed.
+Simultaneously with these a heavy force was to be massed under
+McClernand in Ohio, to sweep down the Mississippi; while the weak show
+of Confederate force in the states west of the river was to be crushed
+before it could make head.
+
+Such was the Federal programme; well conceived and backed by every
+appliance of means, men and material. To meet it we had but a small
+numerical force to defend an extensive and varied tract; and at the
+Capital grave fears began to prevail that the overpowering numbers and
+points of attack would crush the little armies we could muster there.
+
+Nor was the feeling of the people rendered more easy by their
+confidence in the general to whom the defense of this invaluable
+section was entrusted. General Braxton Bragg--however causeless and
+unjust their dictum may have been--had never been popular with the
+southern masses. They regarded him as a bloodthirsty martinet, and
+listened too credulously to all silly stories of his weakness and
+severity that were current, in the army and out. Influenced rather by
+prejudice than by any real knowledge of the man, they believed him
+vain, arrogant and weak; denying him credit for whatever real
+administrative ability that he possessed. The painful result of his
+command was later emphasized by the pessimists, to justify their
+incredulity as to his executive powers.
+
+Besides, many people believed that General Bragg was a pet--if not a
+creature of Mr. Davis; and that he was thrust into a position that
+others deserved far more, when he succeeded Beauregard in command of
+the army of the West.
+
+The latter officer had, after the evacuation of Corinth, been compelled
+to retire by ill health; and Bragg was soon sent to take his place,
+with the understanding in the minds of the people that Kentucky was to
+be the theater of active operations, and that a programme of
+aggression--rather than of defense--was to be carried out, as suggested
+by Beauregard.
+
+General Bragg entered upon his command with a show of great
+vigor--falling into General Beauregard's views that a diversion toward
+Ohio, threatening Cincinnati, would leave the main army free to march
+upon Louisville before re-enforcements could reach Buell. With this
+view General Kirby Smith, with all the troops that could be spared--ill
+clad, badly equipped, and with no commissariat--was pushed forward
+toward the Ohio. On the 29th of August--while our victorious cannon
+were still echoing over the field of the second Manassas--he met and
+defeated the enemy at Richmond; pressed on to Lexington, and thence to
+a point in easy reach of Cincinnati--at that moment not only the great
+granary and storehouse of the Federal armies of the West, but their
+depot and arsenal as well; her wharves crowded with transports,
+quartermasters' steamers and unfinished gunboats, and her warehouses
+bursting with commissary and ordnance stores.
+
+When the news of Smith's triumphant march to the very gates of
+Cincinnati reached Richmond, it was universally believed that the city
+would be captured, or laid in ashes; and thinking men saw great results
+in the delay such destruction would cause to the advance of the enemy
+into the heart of their territory.
+
+Meantime, General Bragg had entered Kentucky from Chattanooga, with an
+army re-enforced and better equipped than had been seen in that section
+since the war began. Once more cheering reports came to Richmond that
+the Confederates were in full march for the enemy; that any moment
+might bring news of the crushing of Buell before re-enforcements, or
+fresh supplies, could reach him. Great was the disappointment,
+therefore, when news really came of the withdrawal of southern troops
+from before Cincinnati; and that all action of Bragg's forces would be
+postponed until Smith's junction with him.
+
+Intense anxiety reigned at the Capital, enlivened only by the fitful
+report of the fight at Munfordville--inflicting heavy loss upon both
+sides, but not productive of any result; for, after the victory, Bragg
+allowed Buell to escape from his front and retire at his will toward
+the Ohio. That a Confederate army, at least equal in all respects, save
+perhaps numbers, to that of the enemy, should thus allow him to escape
+was then inexplicable to the people; and, as far as I have learned, it
+is so still.
+
+There is no critic so censorious as the self-appointed one; no god so
+inexorable as the people's voice. General Bragg's last hold upon the
+southern masses--military and civil--was lost now.
+
+The fight at Munfordville occurred on the 17th of September, but it was
+not until the 4th of the next month that the junction with Smith was
+effected at Frankfort. Then followed a Federal advance upon that town,
+which proved a mere diversion; but it produced the effect of deceiving
+General Bragg and of causing him to divide his forces. Hardee's and
+Buckner's divisions were sent to Perryville; and they with
+Cheatham's--who joined them by a forced march--bore the brunt of the
+battle of Perryville on the 8th of October. Notwithstanding the great
+disparity of numbers, the vim of the "barefooted boys" prevailed
+against the veterans of Buell's army, under General G. W. Thomas. They
+gained a decided advantage over three times their number, but once
+again what was a mere success might have been a crushing defeat, had
+Bragg's whole army been massed at Perryville.
+
+It is neither within the scope nor the purpose of this chapter to give
+more than a bare skeleton of events, or to discuss the delicate points
+of strategy; but it was a great dash to the hopes of the entire people
+that what might have been a crushing blow to Buell--freeing three
+states from Federal occupation--resulted only in the retreat of the
+Confederates from Kentucky.
+
+For, whatever may have been the cause, or the necessity for the
+movement, the army was hastily withdrawn. Supplies were burned;
+disabled carriages and abandoned arms marked the retreat; and the
+terror-stricken people who had, a few weeks before, dismissed the
+southern banners with vivas and blessings to certain victory, now saw
+that same army, to their dismay and sorrow, filing sadly and wearily
+toward the border.
+
+Almost equally as astonished as their retreating enemy, the Federals
+pressed on in pursuit, hot and close; and it was only the ability and
+dash with which General Wheeler covered the retreat of the army--laden
+as it was with captured arms and munitions, and encumbered with crowds
+of women and children, who dared not stay behind--that saved it from
+destruction on that disastrous road from Perryville to Cumberland Gap.
+
+Loud, deep and bitter were the comments of the people when the full
+news of the Kentucky campaign reached them. Unpopular as the name of
+Bragg had been before, it was now mentioned often with execration; and
+the reverses of his universally-condemned favorite reacted upon the
+popularity of Mr. Davis as well. Without understanding the details of
+the campaign, and with no patience to listen to the excuses of his few
+defenders, the public voice was unanimous in denunciation of the plan
+and conduct of the whole movement; and it arraigned the President for
+the fault of his inferior, calling him to trial before a jury that
+daily was becoming more biased and more bitter against him.
+
+Like all the gloomy pages of Confederate history, the Kentucky campaign
+was illumined by flashes of brilliance, dash and enduring courage,
+surpassed by no theater of the war. Disastrous as it was in result, it
+fixed more firmly than ever the high reputation of Kirby Smith; it
+wreathed the names of Buckner, Hardee, Cheatham and Adams with fresh
+bays; and it gave to Joseph Wheeler a record that the people of that
+country will long remember.
+
+In the events first preceding the disaster, too, as well as in his
+independent raid during July, John H. Morgan had added additional
+luster to his rising star, that was only to culminate in his exploits
+of the next year. These were the brighter gleams; but the whole picture
+was, indeed, a somber one; and there can be no wonder at the people's
+anger and distrust when they looked upon it. For it showed a vast and
+rich territory, teeming with those supplies needed most, yielded up to
+the full uses of the enemy; a people one with the South at heart given
+over to oppression of an alien soldiery and unable to co-operate with
+their own long days to come; and across the face of the somber picture
+was drawn the track of the blood of hundreds of brave men; sacrificed
+needlessly, the people said--and in a manner stupid, if not barbarous.
+
+A grave injustice had been done the people of Kentucky, because of
+their conduct during the retreat. Baseless charges of their cowardice
+and treachery had been bandied about in the mouths of the unreflecting;
+the many had been made to suffer for the baseness of the few; and the
+shield of the state had been tarnished because of an inaction her
+people could not avoid.
+
+Crushed, bound and deserted, as they were--with their only reliance
+fading away from their eyes, and a bitter and triumphant enemy in hot
+pursuit at their very doors--it would have been worse than folly--it
+would have been suicide! had the people on the line of that retreat
+offered a blatant sympathy. Utterly useless to others it must have
+been--and even more ruinous to themselves!
+
+And this is the verdict of that Justice who, though slow of foot, fails
+not to overtake Truth, in her own good time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE WAR IN THE WEST.
+
+
+And misfortunes did not come singly, but in battalions.
+
+The trans-Mississippi was so far distant that only broken echoes of its
+troubles could penetrate the web of hostile armies between it and the
+Capital. But those echoes were all of gloom. Desultory warfare--with
+but little real result to either side, and only a steady drain on
+Confederate resources and men--had waged constantly. A trifling success
+had been gained at Lone Jack, but it was more than done away with by
+aggregate losses in bloody guerrilla fighting. Spies, too, had been
+shot on both sides; but the act that came home to every southern heart
+was the wanton murder of ten Confederates at Palmyra, by the order of
+General McNeil, on the flimsy pretext of retaliation. The act, and its
+attendant cruelties, gained for him in the South the name of "The
+Butcher;" and its recital found grim response in every southern
+camp--as each hard hand clasped tighter round the hard musket
+stock--and there was an answering throb to the cry of Thompson's prompt
+war song:
+
+    "Let this be the watchword of one and of all--
+        Remember the Butcher, McNeil!"
+
+Meantime, Mississippi had been the scene of new disasters. Vicksburg,
+the "Queen of the West," still sat unhurt upon her bluffs, smiling
+defiance to the storm of hostile shot and shell; teaching a lesson of
+spirit and endurance to which the whole country looked with admiration
+and emulation. On the 15th of August the iron-clad ram, "Arkansas," had
+escaped out of the Yazoo river; run the gauntlet of the Federal fleet
+at Vicksburg and made safe harbor under the town, to aid in its heroic
+defense.
+
+Twenty days thereafter, General Breckinridge made a most chivalrous and
+dashing, but equally useless and disastrous, attack upon Baton Rouge.
+His small force was greatly outnumbered by the garrison, behind heavy
+works and aided by a heavy fleet of gunboats: and after a splendidly
+gallant fight, that had but one serious result--he was forced to
+withdraw. That result was the loss of the ram Arkansas--which went down
+to co-operate with this movement. Her machinery became deranged, and
+there was only the choice of surrendering her to the enemy, or of
+sending her the road that every Confederate iron-clad went sooner, or
+later--and she was blown up.
+
+But the gloom was only to grow deeper and deeper, with thickening
+clouds and fewer gleams of light.
+
+After the fight at Iuka, in which that popular darling had been
+defeated and forced to fall back before superior numbers, Price had
+combined his army with that of Van Dorn; and on the 3d of October, the
+latter led them to another wild and Quixotic slaughtering--standing out
+among the deeds even of that stirring time, in bold relief for
+brilliant, terrible daring, and fearful slaughter--but hideous in its
+waste of life for reckless and ill-considered objects. The forces of
+the enemy at Corinth were in almost impregnable works; and Van
+Dorn--after worsting them in a hot fight on the 3d, and driving them
+into these lines, next day attacked the defenses themselves and was
+driven back. Officers and men behaved with a cool and brilliant daring
+that savored more of romance than of real war; deeds of personal
+prowess beyond precedent were done; and the army of Mississippi added
+another noble page to its record--but written deep and crimson in its
+best blood.
+
+And another piteous cry was wrung from the hearts of the people to know
+how long, O, Lord! were these terrible scenes--_killings_, not battles;
+and with no result but blood and disaster!--to be re-enacted.
+
+After its retreat from Kentucky, Bragg's army rested for over a month
+at Murfreesboro, the men recruiting from the fatigues of that
+exhausting campaign; and enjoying themselves with every species of
+amusement the town and its kindhearted inhabitants offered--in that
+careless reaction from disaster that ever characterized "Johnny Reb."
+There was no fresh defeat to discourage the anxious watchers at a
+distance; while the lightning dashes of John Morgan, wherever there was
+an enemy's railroad or wagon train; and the flail-like blows of
+Forrest, gave both the army and the people breathing space.
+
+But fresh masses of Federals were hovering upon the track of the
+ill-starred Bragg, threatening to pounce down upon and destroy
+him--even while he believed so much in their inaction as to think of
+forcing them into an advance. The Federals now held West and Middle
+Tennessee, and they only needed control of East Tennessee to have a
+solid base of operations against Northern Georgia. Once firmly
+established there, they could either force their way across the state
+and connect with their Atlantic seaboard fleets; or could cut the sole
+and long line of railroad winding through the Confederate territory;
+thus crippling the whole body by tapping its main vital artery, and
+causing death by depletion. Rosecrans, with an army of between forty
+and fifty thousand men, was lying in Nashville, watching and waiting
+the moment for his telling blow.
+
+This was the posture on Christmas, 1862. Three days after the enemy
+struck--heavily and unexpectedly.
+
+The first intimation General Bragg had of the movement was cavalry
+skirmishes with his advance. These continued daily, increasing in
+frequency and severity until the 30th of December, when the contending
+armies were near enough for General Polk to have a heavy fight with the
+Federal right.
+
+Next day, the weather being bitter and the driving sleet filling the
+atmosphere, the general battle was joined. McCowan and Cleburne, under
+Hardee, charged the Federal's right through a deadly hail of artillery
+and small arms, that darkened the air as thickly as the sleet--driving
+him back at the bayonet's point and swinging his front round from his
+center. The fierce valor of the southern troops and the brilliant dash
+of their leaders was resistless; and evening fell upon a field, wet
+with the blood of the South, but clearly a field of victory. Though the
+Federals fought with desperation, they were so badly hurt that Bragg
+believed they would fall back that night, in such confusion as to leave
+them his easy prey.
+
+Morning of the New Year dawned cold, dark and stormy; but the enemy was
+still in sight, having only taken up a stronger position on a hill and
+posted his artillery most advantageously. It began to look as if
+General Bragg's telegram to Richmond of the victory he had gained,
+might require a postscript; but all that long New Year's day he allowed
+the enemy time to recuperate and strengthen his position.
+
+It seemed as though another Shiloh was to be re-enacted; a victory
+wrenched from heavy odds by valor and skill was to be nullified by
+delay in crushing the enemy, while yet demoralized.
+
+Next day came; and then Breckinridge was sent through a terrific storm
+of balls and shell, that cut down his gallant boys like grass before
+the scythe. On, into the Valley of the Shadow they strode; thinned,
+reeling, broken under that terrible hail--but never blenching. And the
+crest was won! but the best blood of Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee,
+Florida, Alabama and North Carolina was flooding that horrid field!
+Over two thousand noble fellows lay stiff, or writhing with fearful
+wounds--thick upon the path behind the victorious column.
+
+And then--with that fatality that seemed ever to follow the fortunes of
+the unfortunate general in command--the army fell back!
+
+Broken was the goblet of victory; wasted the wine of life! And it was
+accepted as but small consolation, by the people who hoped and expected
+so much--small surcease to the sob of the widow and the moan of the
+orphan! that "the retreat to Tullahoma was conducted in good order."
+
+And again the public voice rose loud and hoarse and threatening against
+the general and the President, whose favorite he was declared to be.
+
+But amid the darkening clouds that frowned close and threatening upon
+him--fearless of the future and heedless of the ominous roar of
+dissatisfaction far and near--sat the ruling spirit of the storm he had
+raised. Grim, steady and purposeful, Jefferson Davis worked his busy
+brain and frail body almost past belief, to redeem the errors of his
+chosen instruments--seeking no counsel, asking no aid--and day by day
+losing the confidence of the sand-shifting populace, who had once made
+him their God! And one act of his now did more than all besides to
+reassure the public mind.
+
+Joseph E. Johnston was sent to command the armies of the West! Since
+his wound at "Seven Pines," the Government--from causes unknown to the
+people--had allowed this brilliant soldier to rust in inactivity; and
+now, when all of evil that ill-fortune and want of combination could
+accomplish had been done in the West, he was singled out, and sent
+forth to reap the harvest so bitterly sown. He was told, in effect, to
+take the frayed and scattered ends of armies and campaigns and bind
+them into a firm and resisting chain of strategy; or--to bear the sins
+of others upon his shoulders and have the finger of History point to
+him as the man who lost the West! But patriot soldier and true knight
+as he was--little resentful of the coldness of Government as he was
+doubtful of his own ability--"Joe Johnston" accepted the test cheerily
+and went forth to do, or die.
+
+    "For the Johnstons have ever borne wings on their spurs,
+    And their motto a noble distinction confers--
+      '_Ever ready!_' for friend, or for foe!"
+
+And this worthy son of noble sires went to clear the Augean Stables of
+the West; and the God-speed of his own state--swelled into a hearty
+chorus by the voice of the country--followed him on his knightly
+errand!
+
+Meantime, Lincoln's famous Proclamation of Emancipation had been
+promulgated. It made little difference to the people of the South; for
+it was at that time looked upon as a vaunt as idle as if he had
+declared the throne of England vacant. Secure in their belief in their
+right doing, and in the trusty arms and deadly rifles that defended it,
+the southern masses never dreamed the day would come when that
+proclamation would be more than the paper upon which it was engrossed.
+Still, in the general gloom upon them, it was taken as but another
+augury of the bitter spirit animating their enemies; and of the extent
+to which it would drive them in this war for the Union and flag.
+
+And so the close of '62 fell dark and dismal upon the distracted
+country; enlivened only by the sole gleam in Virginia--the repulse of
+Burnside from Fredericksburg. But even the joy for this triumph was
+dashed by the precious blood spilled to purchase it; another vent for
+that steady drain of men, material and endurance--already almost past
+bearing.
+
+But there was no weak yielding in Government, or in people. Men looked
+at each other through the gloom, and even as they asked--"Brother, what
+of the night?"--struck hands in a clasp that meant renewed faith in the
+cause and renewed determination to prove its right.
+
+Early in the New Year, news reached Richmond of Magruder's amphibious
+victory, the recapture of Galveston; which town had fallen a prey to
+the enemy's naval power early in October. On the last night of
+'62--while the wearied troops of Bragg were sleeping on the bloody
+field of Murfreesboro--General Magruder, with a mixed command of three
+regiments of raw infantry, some nineteen pieces of field artillery, and
+a boarding fleet of four unarmed boats, came down silently to
+Galveston. The Federal fleet--consisting of the Harriet Lane, the
+Clifton, the Westfield and the Ossawa--were lying just off the town;
+covering it with their broadsides and supported by a force of infantry.
+
+Coming suddenly upon them, like shadows through the darkness,
+Magruder's land force opened a hot fire with field artillery--and aided
+by the daring boarding of the Lane by Colonel Leon Smith's co-operating
+water party--captured the former steamer, burned one other, and drove
+the remaining ones, with their tenders, to sea; where it was impossible
+to follow them.
+
+This gallant and comparatively bloodless raising of the Galveston
+blockade was a gleam of hopeful light; especially as it was almost
+coincident with the first approach to a naval success, by the force of
+Commodore Ingraham in Charleston Harbor on the 30th of January. The
+vessels under his command were ill-built, awkward tubs--as will
+hereafter be seen; but the terrible Brooke gun did its work at long
+range, and drove the wooden blockading fleet from the harbor for the
+moment.
+
+This victory, unimportant as it was--for the blockade it claimed to
+raise was renewed and strengthened within a few days--was cheering;
+for, said the people, if the Confederates can succeed on the water,
+surely the star of the South is not really on the wane.
+
+But there was, after the New Year, a sudden stoppage of active
+movements on both sides. The terrific crash of hostile cannon--the
+continuous roar of opposing small arms--and the groan of the Federal
+mixed with the death-cry of the Confederate, were all suddenly stilled.
+The fearful tornado of war that had swept for many months the
+once-smiling Southland--leaving its wake only the blackened track of
+ruin piled thick with stiffened corpses!--was suddenly hushed; as
+though the evil powers that had raised it must pause to gather fresh
+strength, before once more driving it in a fiercer and deadlier blast.
+
+In the West, we had lost in the early year the strong position of
+Arkansas Post with its large accumulation of stores and its garrison of
+over 3,000 men; but the Queen City still sat defiant and unharmed, the
+hostile fleet and army having left its fruitless task; and the twin
+stronghold of Port Hudson showed another row of ugly teeth, into range
+of which no Federal force seemed yet ready to venture.
+
+On the Atlantic seaboard, too, the prospects, at this time, appeared
+more cheering. Girt as it was, with one unbroken line of watchful
+cruisers, with every port apparently sealed by blockade--southern
+ingenuity and pluck still defied them and ran in precious stores of
+arms, clothing and medicines. General Beauregard had taken active
+command of South Carolina and Georgia; and had put the defenses of both
+coasts--especially of Charleston and Savannah--into such a state of
+fitness as quite satisfied the Government and made the people of those
+states calm and confident in his ability to protect them and theirs.
+General Gustavus W. Smith--the friend and comrade of General Joe
+Johnston--had, like him, been rewarded for his sacrifices in coming
+South, and his able exertions afterward, by the coldness and neglect of
+the Government. But like him, too, he forgot personal wrongs; and, when
+ordered to North Carolina, threw his whole energy and skill into the
+works of defense for the coast and for that vital artery of railroad,
+on which the life of the South depended.
+
+Butler still waged his peculiar warfare upon unarmed men and weak women
+in the soft nest he had made himself, at New Orleans; but Mobile reared
+her defiant crest and took into her bosom peaceful vessels laden with
+stores of priceless utility, only to send them out again--bristling
+with rifled cannon, fleet-winged and agile, ready to pounce upon the
+Federal shipping.
+
+In the Middle West, Johnston's presence had acted like oil upon the
+darkening waters of trouble and despair. There had been no record of
+fresh disaster, or fresh mismanagement; the troops were recruiting,
+resting and increasing in numbers and efficiency; the cavalry,
+mobilized under Van Dorn--at last placed in his proper sphere--had done
+efficient and harassing, if desultory warfare, upon the enemy's small
+posts and communications. Pegram--by his effective raid through
+Kentucky--had shown that her people there were not forgotten by their
+brothers beyond; and his skillful retreat--laden with heavy droves of
+cattle and in the face of a superior force--gained him high praise from
+his superior officers.
+
+And so the people watched and waited--hopeless no longer, but quite
+recovered from the prostration of the rapid, heavy and continuous blows
+of the previous autumn. Steadfast and buoyant, as they were ever, the
+masses of the South once more turned their backs upon past disaster,
+looking eagerly through the dark cloud for the silver lining they felt
+must be beyond.
+
+And again, as ever, they turned their eyes toward Virginia--stately and
+calm amid the shock of battle. And they hoped not in vain; for over her
+blackened fields--furrowed by shot and shell, drenched with blood of
+best and bravest, but only more sacred for the precious libation--was
+again to ring the clarion shout of victory that ever swelled from the
+lines of Stonewall Jackson!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE FAILURE IN FINANCE.
+
+
+When the competent historian shall at last undertake a thoughtful work
+upon our great struggle, there can be little doubt that he will rank
+among the primary causes of the Confederacy's dissolution the grave
+errors of its financial system.
+
+These errors he will find not only in the theory and framework of that
+system--founded upon a fallacy, but also in the detailed workings of
+its daily management; and in persistent adherence to a line of policy,
+each day proved more fatal.
+
+In a previous chapter, allusion has been made to the feeling of
+conscious superiority, pervading all classes of government and people
+at the inception of the struggle, at Montgomery. This extended to all
+classes of the people; and the universal belief in the great dogma of
+secession--"Cotton is king!"--was doubtless the foundation of that
+cardboard structure of Confederate finance, which the first rude shock
+toppled to pieces, and the inexorable breath of demand shriveled into
+nothingness.
+
+At Montgomery, the promises of ease in money matters were all that
+could have been asked. The people, everywhere, had come forward with
+frank, unanimous selflessness. They had faith in the cause--faith in
+the Government--faith in themselves; and they proved it by their works,
+giving with lavish hand from their substance. It was felt that the
+great prosperity of the North had, in a great measure, come from the
+South; that the looms of New England were fed with southern cotton;
+that the New York custom house was mainly busied over southern exports;
+that the soil of the South was, by the alchemy of trade, transmuted
+annually into three-fifths of the gold in the Federal treasury.
+
+"Egad, sir!--money is our last trouble, sir!" my old friend, the colonel,
+had cried with enthusiasm. "The country teems with riches--actually
+teems, sir! with gold. We have only to stretch out our hands to gather
+it in--more than we want, egad! _Men_ we need, sir!--but _money_, never!"
+
+And the colonel was right in theory. But that very overweening
+confidence in her strength proved the South's greatest weakness; and
+where was needed the strong, nervous grasp of a practical and practiced
+hand, to seize at once the threads of gold, and weave them into a solid
+cord of system--weak and shifting fingers were allowed to tangle and
+confuse them, till each in turn was snapped and rendered worse than
+worthless. Mr. C. G. Memminger, whom the President elevated to the
+Treasury Department, was untried and unknown out of his own State; but
+so great was the confidence of the people in their financial power--so
+simple did the problem of its development seem to them--that they were
+trustful and satisfied, until the stern grasp of necessity roughly
+shook them from their golden dream. And they awoke, like the sleeper of
+German legend, to find their hands filled with worthless yellow leaves
+and grains of chaff, where they had dreamed of treasure beyond compare.
+
+Immediately upon his appointment, thoughtful men--who could look a
+little beyond the rose-colored clouds of the present--had pressed upon
+Secretary Memminger the necessity for establishing heavy foreign
+credits, to draw against in case of future need. The currency of the
+southern banks was comparatively nothing, in view of increased
+expenditures. The cotton which was gold--food--clothing--everything to
+the South, with the open ports of the North, would be more worthless
+than the wampum of the Indians, so soon as the threatened blockade
+might seal up her ports and exclude the European purchaser. But, on the
+contrary, if that cotton were bought on the faith of the
+Government--and planters would willingly have sold their last pound for
+Confederate bonds; if it were shipped to Europe at once and sold in her
+market, as circumstances might warrant, the Confederacy would, in
+effect, have a Treasury Department abroad, with a constantly accruing
+gold balance. Then it could have paid--without agencies and middlemen
+beyond number, who were a constant moth in the Treasury--in cash and at
+reduced prices, for all foreign supplies; those supplies could have
+been purchased promptly and honestly, and sent in before the blockade
+demanded a toll of one-half; but above all, the interest and principal
+of such bonds to the planters could have been paid in coin, and a
+specie circulation thus been made, instead of the fatal and endless
+paper issues that rendered Confederate credit a scoff, and weakened the
+confidence of the southern people in the ability and integrity of that
+department.
+
+In this sense--and this sense alone--_Cotton was king!_ But the hands
+that could have lifted him safely upon a throne and made every fiber a
+golden sinew of war, weakly wrested the scepter from his grasp, and hid
+him away from the sight and from the very memory of nations.
+
+It was as though the youngest of the nations aped the legendary
+traditions of the oldest. After the potent and vigorous King Cotton was
+killed by starvation, Confederate finance treated him as Jewish myth
+declares dead King Solomon was treated. In his million-acred temple, he
+stood--cold, white and useless--leaning upon his broken staff; while
+timorous leadership gaped at his still majesty--
+
+    "Awed by the face, and the fear, and the fame
+      Of the dead king standing there;
+    For his beard was so white and his eyes so cold,
+      They left him alone with his crown of gold!"
+
+Had the Government bought--as was urged upon it in the fall of '61--all
+the cotton in the country, at the then prices, and paid for it in
+Confederate bonds at six per cent., that cotton--according to
+calculations of the best cotton men of the South--would have produced
+in Liverpool, during the next three years, at rapidly-increasing prices,
+_over one thousand millions of dollars in gold!_ Granting this erroneous,
+even by one-half, it follows that the immense specie balance thus held,
+would--after paying all accruing interest--have left such a surplus as
+to have kept the currency issue of Confederate States' notes merely
+nominal, and even then have held them at a par valuation.
+
+The soldier, who freely bared his breast to the shock of a hundred
+battles for his country, his fireside and his little ones, could then
+have sent his pittance of eleven dollars a month to that fireside, with
+the consciousness it might buy those dear ones bread at least. But long
+before the darkest days fell upon the South, his whole month's pay
+would not buy them _one pound of bacon_!
+
+Secretary Memminger would seem to have had some theory, or reasons of
+his own, for refusing to listen to the plain common sense in these
+suggestions from practical sources. With a strictly agricultural
+population to supply, he insisted on the issue of Confederate notes in
+such volume that the supply far exceeded the demand. For, had there
+been a large manufacturing population actively employed in the South,
+as there was in the North, the inflation of currency might have been
+temporarily concealed by its rapid passage from hand to hand. But with
+no such demand--with only the daily necessities of the household and of
+the person to relieve--the plethora of these promises to pay naturally
+resulted, first in sluggishness, then in a complete break-down of the
+whole system.
+
+Still, from the joyous days of Montgomery, and the triumphant ones
+after Manassas--through the doubtful pauses of the next winter and the
+dark days of New Orleans--on to the very _Dies irae_--there pervaded
+government and people a secure belief that the finances of the North
+would break down, and the war collapse for want of money!
+
+And so tenacious were people and rulers of this ingrained belief, that
+they cherished it, even while they saw the greenbacks of the Federal
+Government stand at 25 to 30 per cent. depreciation, while their own
+Treasury notes dropped rapidly from _one hundred_ to _one thousand_!
+
+Let us pause for one moment to examine upon what basis this dream was
+founded, before going into the sad picture of want--demoralization--ruin!
+into which the errors of its Treasury plunged the southern people.
+
+Accepting the delusive estimate that all the property of the United
+States, in 1861, represented but one-fifth more than that of the
+Confederate States; and that over three-fifths of the gold duties were
+from cotton and cotton fabrics, and products of the South alone, it was
+easy for the southern eye to see a future of trial, if not of ruin, for
+the North. Then, too, at the beginning of the war it was reasoned that
+the northern army of invasion, working on exterior lines, must
+necessarily be greater far in numbers and in cost, than the army of
+defense, working on interior lines. Moreover, the vast-proposed
+blockade, by increasing to a point of anything like efficiency the
+vessels, armament, and personnel of the United States navy, would cost
+many millions. Thus, in short, the southern thinker could very readily
+persuade himself that the annual expenditures of the Federal Government
+must--even with the strictest economy and best management--run to
+unprecedented and undreamed-of sums.
+
+The demand for increased appropriations with the very first call of Mr.
+Lincoln for troops, justified this belief; the budget of '62 to the
+United States Congress went far beyond all expectation; and the wild
+waste, extravagance, and robbery that swelled each succeeding estimate,
+were but more and more proof to the southern thinker, that he must be
+right. But he had made one grave miscalculation.
+
+Into the woof of delusion which he continued to weave, for enwrapping
+his own judgment, such reasoner omitted wholly to cross the warp of
+combined result. He neglected that vastly-important filament--proper
+and value-enhancing handling of his valuable production; the reality
+that southern cotton, sugar and rice had become so great a factor in
+national wealth, mainly through manipulation by northern hands. He did
+not stop to calculate that--those hands removed and, in addition, the
+ports of the South herself hermetically sealed--all product, not
+consumable, must become as valueless as the leaves and dross of the
+German's dreamer!
+
+The expenses of the North have ever been paid by the South, he
+reasoned. This sum now withdrawn, it follows that not only will the
+increased expenses of the North not be paid; but the heavy balance will
+be efficient in the southern Treasury, to meet our far smaller
+expenses.
+
+With equal ability in management, this result _might_ have happened;
+for there is no sort of doubt that depreciation in southern money was,
+in some regards, reason for appreciation in northern. But while the
+policy of the southern Treasury was weak, vacillating and destructive,
+that of the northern was strong, bold and cautious. While Mr.
+Memminger--instead of utilizing those products which had heretofore
+been the life-blood of northern finance--allowed the precious moments
+to pass; and flooded the country with paper, with only future, instead
+of present and actual, basis of redemption, the northern Secretary
+struck boldly at the very root of the matter and made each successive
+disaster to northern arms another link in the strengthening chain of
+northern credit.
+
+The Union finances did indeed appear desperate. The stoppage of a sure
+and heavy means of revenue, at the same moment that the spindles of New
+England stood still for want of food; the increased demand for fabrics
+and supplies, that had now to be imported; and the vast increase of
+expenditure, coincident with decrease in revenue, left but had one door
+open to escape. The North was flooded with greenback promises to pay,
+issued with one sole basis of redemption--the chance of absolute
+conquest of a people roused, warlike, and determined to yield nothing
+save their lives.
+
+To meet this issue and the interest of the vast debt incurred, taxation
+in the North rapidly increased, until the oppressive burden represented,
+in one or another shape, _near 20 per cent._ of the real property of
+the people!
+
+Besides, the North, unlike ourselves--argued the hopeful southern
+financier--does not go into the war as a unit. New York, the great
+money center, is entirely opposed to the war; New England is
+discontented at the stoppage of her factories and the loss imposed upon
+her people; and the great West, ever more bound to the South than to
+the East, by community of interest and of pursuit, must soon see that
+her only road to salvation is down the great river that has heretofore
+been the one lung that gave her the breath of life! Will the cute
+Yankee of New England submit to be ruined, and starved, and taxed in
+addition? Will the great commercial metropolis let the grass grow in
+her streets and the vessels rot at her wharves, that once laughed with
+southern cotton? Will the granary and meat-house of the Union yield all
+her produce for baseless paper promises and, in addition pay heavy tax
+to carry on a war, suicidal as she must see it?
+
+Such were the delusions of the South--based, it may be, upon reason,
+and only delusions because underestimating and despising the great
+ingenuity of the enemy, and the vast cohesive power of _interest_!
+
+If the Washington government could not make the war popular, it could
+at least make it a great money job. If it could not bring it at once to
+the hearts of its people, it could at least force it directly upon
+their pockets.
+
+The vast increase in army and navy gave sudden and excitingly novel
+employment to thousands of men then out of situations; the unprecedented
+demand for materials of war--arms--munitions--clothing--supplies--turned
+the North and East into one vast armory and quartermaster's store;
+while the West was a huge commissary department. Then the Government
+paid well and promptly, if it did pay in greenbacks. These daily
+changed hands and nobody stopped to inquire on what the promise to pay
+was based.
+
+Great contracts were let out to shrewd and skillful moneyed men; these
+again subdivided became the means of employing thousands of idle
+hands--while each sub-contractor became a missionary to the mob to
+preach the gospel of the greenback!
+
+But above all was the shrewdness and finesse with which the bonds were
+manipulated. The suction once applied, the great engine, Wall street,
+was pumped dry; and self-preservation made every bondholder a _de
+facto_ emissary of the Treasury Department.
+
+Banker and baker, soldier and seamstress, were equally interested in
+the currency. It became greenback or nothing, and the United States
+used the theory of self-preservation on which to build a substantial
+edifice of public credit.
+
+These were the hard, real reasons that dissipated at last the dream of
+the South; that kept the greenback promise of the manufacturing North
+at little below gold, while the grayback of the producing South went
+down--down--from two--to ten--twenty--at last, to one thousand dollars
+for one.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+DOLLARS, CENTS, AND LESS.
+
+
+And now, looking back to the struggling and suffering South, one asks
+with wonder how these results could have transpired.
+
+Unlike the North, the South went into the struggle with her whole soul
+and her whole strength. Every man came forward with one accord, willing
+to work in the way he best might for the cause he held sacred; ready to
+give his arm, his life, and all he had beside, for the general good.
+Whole regiments were put into service, armed, uniformed and equipped,
+without costing the central government one dollar; and in some
+instances--as of that spotless knight, true gentleman and pure patriot,
+Wade Hampton--raised by the energy, paid for by the generosity, and led
+to death itself by the valor of one man!
+
+Corporations came into this general feeling. Railroads put their
+rolling-stock and their power in the hands of the Government; agreeing,
+as early as the origin of the Montgomery government, to take their pay
+at _half rates_ and in government bonds. Banks put their facilities and
+their circulation, manufacturers their machinery and foundries their
+material, at public disposition, for the bare cost of existence.
+Farmers and graziers cheerfully yielded all demanded of them! And how
+the women wrought--how soft hands that had never worked before plied
+the ceaseless needle through the tough fabric--how taper fingers packed
+the boxes for camp, full from self-denial at home--shall shine down all
+history as the brightest page in story of noble selflessness.
+
+In the deadly hail of hostile batteries; in the sweltering
+harvest-field of August, and at the saddened and desolate fireside of
+December, the southern people wrought on--hoped on!
+
+And the result of all this willing sacrifice was greatly to reduce the
+burdens on the treasury. For reasons before stated the southern army
+was smaller, and its transportation cost far less, than that of the
+enemy. Its equipment was far cheaper, and its subsistence for every
+reason infinitely smaller.
+
+Still, with an outlay per diem scarcely more than one-tenth that of the
+North--which amounted to near $4,000,000! daily; with the teeming
+fields and bursting warehouses filled with cotton--a year back,
+auriferous in every fiber--worthless now; and with a people thus united
+to act and to aid it, the Southern Treasury continued to flood the
+country with paper issues, based only on the silver lining of the cloud
+that hung darker and ever darker over the South.
+
+With _one-tenth_ the population in the field and the rest working
+for them, there was no real demand for this inordinate issue. One-tenth
+the volume of currency properly distributed, with a coincident issue of
+bonds, would have relieved the actual necessities of buyer and seller.
+But still the wheels worked on--still Treasury notes fluttered out,
+until every bank and store and till was glutted with them.
+
+Then the results of the inflation came with relentless and rapid pace.
+With the people still convinced of the inevitable outcome of their
+united efforts; with the thinkers of the South still evolving their
+theories of the philosopher's stone to change all this mass of paper
+into gold; and with the press of the country blatant about the speedy
+and certain collapse of northern credit; above all, with millions of
+pounds of cotton rotting in our warehouses--Confederate money, little
+by little, bought less and less of the necessaries of life.
+
+At first the change was very gradual. In the summer of 1861, persons
+coming to Richmond from Europe and the North spent their gold as freely
+as the Treasury notes. Then gold rose to five, ten, fifteen, and
+finally to forty per cent. premium. There it stuck for a time. But the
+issues increased in volume, the blockade grew more effective, and
+misgivings about the Treasury management crept into the minds of the
+people. Gold went up again, ten per cent. at a jump, until it touched a
+hundred--then rapidly to a hundred and fifty.
+
+"The whole system looks devilish blue," said Styles Staple, who was
+curing an ugly wound in his thigh. "I've been writing 'the house' about
+it, and the Gov. thinks the hour has passed for utilizing the cotton.
+If that can't be impressed by the Government, the whole bottom will
+fall out of this thing before many months."
+
+"If it ever passes the two hundred," solemnly quoth the colonel in
+answer, "egad, sir! 'twill go up like a rocket! Up, sir! egad! clean
+out of sight!"
+
+I candidly answered that I could not see the end of the inflation.
+
+"I do," Styles growled--"Repudiation!"
+
+"Well, that's no end of a nobby thing!" cried Will Wyatt, who was
+always bored about anything more serious than the last book, or
+charging a battery. "Cheerful that, for a fellow's little pile to go up
+like a rocket, and he not even to get the stick."
+
+"He can have the smoke, however," answered Styles more cheerily, as he
+hobbled over and gave a $5 note for a dozen cigars.
+
+And this began rapidly to be the tone, everywhere out of trade. A vague
+feeling of insecurity about the power of the Government to check the
+onward flood of issue prevailed in all classes. This produced a
+reckless expenditure for anything tangible and portable. And at last
+the colonel's prediction was verified; for money touched the two
+hundred per cent., and went up--up--by the one hundred; until in a time
+incredibly short--and with such a suddenness that people had no time to
+be surprised--the Confederate treasury note stood still for a moment,
+worth _twenty to one_ for _gold_!
+
+This may be accounted for, in small part, by the scarcity of supplies
+and the increasing efficiency of the blockade. But it must be
+remembered that the value of gold remained a constant quantity and the
+gold dollar in Richmond, note-flooded and blockade-bound, _bought
+more_ of almost any article than it ever had before.
+
+With a string of active vessels watching every port and cove, to snap
+up the daring ventures between the island ports and the coast; with a
+powerful enemy thundering at every point of entrance to southern
+territory, still the fortunate man who had gold, or who could draw upon
+Europe, or the North, actually lived much cheaper than in any place
+beyond the lines! Singular as this statement may appear, it is actual
+fact. At this moment--before the depreciation of currency became such
+as to give it no value whatever--board at the best hotels in Richmond
+was $20 per day--equivalent to $1 in gold, while it was $3 in New York,
+or Washington; a suit of clothes could be had for $600 or $30 in gold,
+while in New York it cost from $60 to $80; the best whisky was $25 per
+gallon--$1.25 in gold, while in the North it was more than double.
+
+Rapidly gold rose in the market, and in the absence of stocks became
+the only vehicle for financial gambling. From time to time, as a
+brilliant success would grace Confederate arms, the fall of Treasury
+credit would be checked. But it was only for the moment--and it went
+down steadily, rapidly, fatally. And as steadily, as rapidly and as
+fatally did the Treasury shuttles fly; spinning out the notes, like a
+whirlwind in autumn. And tighter grew the blockade, and fewer the means
+of supply. Stocks on hand were long since gone; little came to replace
+them, and the rich were driven to great straits to live, while the poor
+almost starved.
+
+Away from the army lines and great centers of cities, the suffering was
+dreadful; impressments stripped the impoverished people; conscription
+turned smiling fields into desert wastes; fire and sword ravaged many
+districts; and the few who could raise the great bundle of paper
+necessary to buy a meal, scarce knew where to turn in the general
+desolation, to procure it even then. In the cities, it was a little
+better; but when beef, pork and butter in Richmond reached $35 per
+pound; when common cloth was $60 per yard, shoes $200 to $800 per pair,
+and a barrel of flour worth $1,400, it became a difficult problem to
+fill one's stomach at any outlay.
+
+And all this time the soldiers and Government employes were being paid
+on a gold basis. The private received _eleven_ (afterward twenty-one)
+dollars per month--amounting at the end of 1863 to just _fifty-five
+cents in coin_! At the last payments, before the final actions at
+Petersburg, the pay of a private for one month was _thirty-three
+cents_!
+
+Nor were officers of the army and navy better paid. With their rank in
+the old service guaranteed them, they also received about the same pay,
+when gold and paper money were of equal value. Later Congress believed
+it would be a derogation from its dignity to "practically reduce the
+value of its issues," as one member said, "by raising officers' pay."
+Thus a lieutenant in the navy, probably of twenty years' experience,
+and with a family dependent upon him, though debarred from all other
+labor, received $1,500 per year--equal in gold to the sum of $4.25 per
+month; while a brigadier, or other higher general, received nearly $8
+per month.
+
+These things would provoke a smile, did they not bring with them the
+memory of the anguished struggle to fight off want that the wives and
+children of the soldier martyrs made. I have gone into detail further
+than space, or the reader's patience may warrant; and still, "Behold,
+the half is not told!"
+
+I would not, if I could, record the bitter miseries of the last
+dreadful winter--paint the gaunt and ugly outlines of womanhood,
+squalid, famished, dying--but triumphant still. One case only will tell
+the tale for all the rest. A poor, fragile creature, still girlish and
+refined under the pinched and pallid features of starvation, tottered
+to me one day to beg work.
+
+"It is life or death for me and four young children," she said. "We
+have eaten nothing to-day; and all last week we lived on _three pints
+of rice!_"
+
+Will Wyatt, who was near, made a generous offer of relief. Tears sprang
+into the woman's eyes as she answered, "You mean kindness, major; but I
+have never asked charity yet. My husband is at the front; and I only
+ask a right--to be allowed to work for my children!"
+
+Such were the sufferings, such the spirit of southern women!
+
+When it was too late--when the headlong road to ruin had been more than
+half-way run--some feeble attempts were made to stay the downward rush.
+Of course, they were useless--worse than useless, in that they made
+widespread a feeling of distrust, already deep-seated with reflecting
+men. The volume of currency had reached such expansion that its value
+was merely nominal for purposes of subsistence, when the devices of Mr.
+Memminger to lessen it began to be pressed in earnest.
+
+The people had now begun to see that the whole theory of the Treasury
+was false; that the moment for utilizing the cotton supply had indeed
+been lost; and they murmured loud and deep against the Secretary and
+the President; whom they believed not only retained him in office, but
+endorsed his destructive policy. Mr. Davis, the people said, was
+autocratic with his Cabinet, and would have displaced Mr. Memminger
+summarily, had he not favored that peculiar financial system. Mr.
+Davis, too, was known to have been hostile to the absorption and
+exportation by the Government of all the cotton. He had, moreover,
+recommended against any legislation by Congress to contract the
+currency and stop the issues. Now, therefore, the inflation and utter
+inadequacy of the paper money was laid at his door, as well as Mr.
+Memminger's; and the people, feeling there was no safety for them,
+began to distrust the good faith of such reckless issue. A system of
+barter was inaugurated among the country people; and they traded off
+things only needful for others absolutely essential. They began to feel
+a dread of taking the notes of the Government, and in many instances
+refused them utterly. And yet these very people yielded cheerfully to
+the constantly insolent, and not infrequently illegal, demands of the
+impressment officers.
+
+In the cities, too, a point had been reached where the promise of the
+Government to pay was looked upon as a bitter joke. Bonds were
+constantly refused in business transactions, and only Treasury
+notes--as a medium of temporary exchange--were accepted.
+
+Then, as a necessary measure, came the imperative order for funding the
+currency. All the millions of old issues were to be turned into the
+treasury, by a certain date, and exchanged for bonds. If the unlucky
+holder could not, or would not, deposit or exchange, he lost
+thirty-three per cent. of the value of the Government pledge he held.
+The old issues went rapidly out of sight; but the measure did not
+appreciably lessen the current medium, while it _did_ very appreciably
+lessen the confidence in the integrity of the Department.
+
+It is but the first step in repudiation, thought the people. If
+Government will on any pretext ignore one-third of its obligation, what
+guarantee have we for the other two? And so, justly or unjustly, the
+country lost all faith in the money. Men became reckless and paid any
+price for any article that would keep. Tobacco--as being the most
+compact and portable--was the favorite investment; but cotton, real
+estate, merchandise--anything but the paper money, was grasped at with
+avidity.
+
+It has often been charged that speculators ruined the currency. But, to
+give the children of the devil their due--we can scarcely think but
+that the currency made the speculators.
+
+Had the plain system been adopted, by which the currency dollar could
+have ever approximated to coin, it would have been simply impossible
+for the holders of supplies to have run prices up to extortionate
+figures. Not that I would for one instant excuse, or ask any mercy for,
+those unclean vultures who preyed upon the dead credit of their
+Government; who grew fat and loathsome while they battened on the
+miseries of the brave, true men who battled for them in the front ranks
+of the fight. But while the fault and the shame is theirs, it may not
+be disguised that the door was not only left open for their base
+plundering, but in many cases they were urged toward it by the very
+hands that should have slammed it in their faces.
+
+When we come to consider the question of the blockade, we may, perhaps,
+see this more clearly. Meantime, in glancing down the past by the light
+of experience, one can not but marvel at the rapid, yet almost
+imperceptible, epidemic that fastened incurably upon the people,
+spreading to all classes and sapping the very foundations of their
+strength.
+
+In the beginning, as vast crowds poured into Richmond--each man with a
+little money and anxious to use it to some advantage--trade put on a
+new and holiday dress. Old shops were spruced up; old stocks, by aid of
+brushing and additions, were made to appear quite salable and rapidly
+ran off. The demand made the meat it fed upon, until stores, shops and
+booths sprang up in all parts of the city and on all the roads leading
+into it from the camps. Gradually--from causes already noted--supplies
+became more scarce as money became more plenty. The pinch began to be
+felt by many who had never known it before; and almost every one, who
+had any surplus portables, was willing to turn them into money. In this
+way, those who had anything to sell, for the time, managed to live. But
+the unfortunates who had only what they needed absolutely, or who were
+forced to live upon a fixed stipend, that did not increase in any ratio
+to the decrease of money, suffered terribly.
+
+These were only too ready to take the fever of speculation; and to buy
+any small lots of anything whatever that might sell again at a profit.
+This was the class from which the main body of amateur speculators was
+recruited. One successful venture led to another and gave added means
+for it. The clerk, or the soldier, who yesterday cleared his hundred on
+a little turn in whisky, to-morrow might hope to double it--then
+reinvest his principal and his profits. It was marvelous how values
+rose over night. One might buy anything, a lot of flour--a line of
+fruits--a hogshead of molasses, or a case of boots to-day, with almost
+a certainty of nearly doubling his outlay to-day week.
+
+The ordinary channels of trade became clogged and blocked by its
+constant increase. Auction houses became the means of brokerage; and
+their number increased to such an extent that half a dozen red flags at
+last dotted every block on Main street. And incongruous, indeed, were
+the mixtures exposed at these sales, as well as in the windows of the
+smallest shops in Richmond. In the latter, bonnets rested on the sturdy
+legs of cavalry boots; rolls of ribbon were festooned along the crossed
+barrel of a rifle and the dingy cotton umbrella; while cartridges,
+loaves of bread, packages of groceries, gloves, letter paper, packs of
+cards, prayer-books and canteens, jostled each other in admirable
+confusion.
+
+At these auctions there was utter want of system. Hogsheads of prime
+rum would be put up after kegs of spikes; a case of organdies would
+follow a good cavalry horse; and then might come four second-hand
+feather-beds and a hundred boarding cutlasses.
+
+But everything soever found a purchaser; some because they were
+absolutely needed and the buyer dreaded waiting the next week's rise;
+the majority to sell again in this insane game of money-making.
+
+But varied as were the motives for speculation, the principal ones were
+breadstuffs and absolute necessities of life; and while the minor
+speculators--the amateurs--purchased for _quick_ profits--the
+professional vultures bought for _great_ ones and could afford to wait.
+
+The first class reached into every rank of society; the second were
+principally Yankee residents--caught in Richmond by the war, or
+remaining for the sole purpose of making it pay--and a smaller class of
+the lowest Polish Jews. Ishmaels both, owning no kinship and no
+country, their sole hope was gain--gain at the cost of reputation and
+credit themselves--gain even at the cost of torture and starvation to
+the whole South beside. These it was who could afford to buy in bulk;
+then aid the rise they knew must come inexorably, by hoarding up great
+quantities of flour, bacon, beef and salt.
+
+It mattered not for themselves who suffered--who starved. It mattered
+not if the noble fellows at the front lived on a scant handful of
+cornmeal per day--if starving men died before the works they were too
+weak to mount--if ghastly objects in hospital and trench literally
+perished, while their storehouses burst with food--waiting for a rise!
+
+It is too ugly a picture to dwell upon. Suffice it that the human
+hyenas of speculation did prey upon the dying South; that they locked
+up her salt while the men in the trenches perished for it; that thrice
+they stored the flour the people felt was theirs, in such quantities
+and for so long, that before their maw for gain was glutted, serious
+riots of the starving called for the strong hand to interfere. And to
+the credit of Government and southern soldier, be it said--even in that
+dark hour, with craving stomach and sickening soul--"Johnny Reb" obeyed
+his orders and guarded the den of the hyena--from his own hungering
+children, perhaps!
+
+No weak words of mine may paint the baseness and infamy of the vultures
+of the market. Only a Dore, with a picture like his Frozen Hell, or
+Ugolino--might give it faint ideal.
+
+And with the feeling how valueless was the money, came another
+epidemic--not so widespread, perhaps, as the speculation fever; but
+equally fatal to those who caught it--the rage for gambling!
+
+Impulsive by nature, living in an atmosphere of constant and increasing
+artificial excitement, feeling that the money worth little to-day,
+perhaps, would be worth nothing to-morrow--the men of the South gambled
+heavily, recklessly and openly. There was no shame--little concealment
+about it. The money was theirs, they argued, and mighty hardly earned,
+too. They were cut off from home ties and home amusements; led the life
+of dumb beasts in camp; and, when they came to town--ho! for "the
+tiger."
+
+Whether these reasons be valid or not, such they were. And really to
+the camp-wearied and battle-worn officer, the saloon of the fashionable
+Richmond "hell" was a thing of beauty. Its luxurious furniture, soft
+lights, obsequious servants and lavish store of such wines and liquors
+and cigars as could be had nowhere else in Dixie--these were only part
+of the inducement. Excitement did the rest, leaving out utterly the
+vulgar one of possible gain, so rarely did that obtain. But in these
+faro-banks collected the leading men, resident and alien, of the
+Capital. Senators, soldiers and the learned professions sat elbow to
+elbow, round the generous table that offered choicest viands money
+could procure. In the handsome rooms above they puffed fragrant and
+real Havanas, while the latest developments of news, strategy and
+policy were discussed; sometimes ably, sometimes flippantly, but always
+freshly. Here men who had been riding raids in the mountains of the
+West; had lain shut up in the water batteries of the Mississippi; or
+had faced the advance of the many "On-to-Richmonds"--met after long
+separation. Here the wondering young cadet would look first upon some
+noted raider, or some gallant brigadier--cool and invincible amid the
+rattle of Minie-balls, as reckless but conquerable amid the rattle of
+ivory chips.
+
+So the faro-banks flourished and the gamblers waxed fat like Jeshurun,
+the ass, and kicked never so boldly at the conscript man. Nor were they
+all of ignoble memory. There is more than one "sport" in the South
+to-day, who made warm and real friends of high position from his acts
+of real generosity then.
+
+Whatever may be the vices of gamblers as a class, many a soldier-boy
+will bear witness to the exception that proves the rule. One of the
+"hells" at least was a _home_ for the refugee; and whether the
+Maryland soldier came dirty, and hungry and ragged from camp, with
+never a "stamp" in his pocket; whether he came wearied and worn, but
+"full of greenbacks," from a trip across the lines--the post of honor
+at the table, the most cordial welcome and most generous glass of wine
+were ever his.
+
+However the holy may be horrified--however the princely speculator may
+turn up his keen-scented nose, I here record that, during the four
+years of dark and bloody war--of pinching want and bitter trial, there
+was no more generous, free-hearted and delicate aid given to the
+suffering soldier-boy, than came from the hand of the Baltimore
+faro-banker.
+
+So in Richmond high and low gambled--some lightly for excitement's
+sake--some dashingly and brilliantly--a few sullenly and doggedly going
+in to gain. Few got badly hurt, getting more in equivalent of wines,
+cigars and jolly dinners than they gave. They looked upon the "hell" as
+a club--and as such used it freely, spending what they had and
+whistling over their losses. When they had money to spare they played;
+when they had no money to spare--or otherwise--they smoked their
+cigars, drank their toddies and met their friends in chaff and gossip,
+with no more idea that there was a moral or social wrong than if they
+had been at the "Manhattan" or the "Pickwick" of to-day.
+
+I do not pretend to defend the habit; but such it was, and such all the
+men who remember the Capital will recognize it.
+
+Of that other class, who "went in for blood"--some got badly hurt in
+reputation and in pocket. But the dead cause has buried its dead; and
+their errors--the result of an overstrained state of society and
+indubitably of a false money-system--hurt no one but themselves.
+
+And so, with the enemy thundering at the gates; with the echoed
+_whoo!_ of the great shells almost sounding in the streets; and
+with the ill-provided army staggering under the burthen of
+defense--almost too heavy for it to bear--the finances of the
+Confederacy went from bad to worse--to nothing!
+
+The cotton that the alchemy of genius, or even of business tact--might
+have transmuted into gold, rotted useless; or worse, as a bait for the
+raider. The notes, that might have been a worthy pledge of governmental
+faith, bore no meaning now upon their face; and the soldier in the
+trench and the family at the desolate fireside--who might have been
+comfortably fed and clad--were gnawed with very hunger! And when the
+people murmured too loudly, a change was made in men, if not in policy.
+
+Even if Mr. Trenholm had the ability, he had no opportunity to prove
+it. The evil seed had been sown and the bitter fruit had grown apace.
+Confederate credit was dead!
+
+Even its own people had no more faith in the issues of their
+government; and they hesitated not--even while they groped on, ever on
+to the darkness coming faster and faster down upon them--to declare
+that the cause of their trouble was Mr. Memminger; with the President
+behind him.
+
+But, though the people saw the mismanagement and felt its cause--though
+they suffered from it as never nation suffered before--though they
+spoke always bitterly and often hotly of it; still, in their greatest
+straits and in their darkest hours, no southern man ever deemed it but
+mismanagement.
+
+The wildest and most reckless slanderer could never hint that one shred
+of all the flood of paper was ever diverted from its proper channel by
+the Secretary; or that he had not worked brain and body to the utmost,
+in the unequal struggle to subdue the monster he had created.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+ACROSS THE POTOMAC AND BACK.
+
+
+Of such vast import to the southern cause was Lee's first aggressive
+campaign in Maryland; so vital was its need believed to be, by the
+people of the South; so varied and warm was their discussion of it that
+it may seem proper to give that advance more detailed consideration.
+
+Imperfect and inadequate as such a sketch must be, to the soldier, it
+may still convey in some sort, the ideas of the southern people upon a
+momentous question.
+
+Coincident with the evacuation of the Peninsula by the Federals was
+General Lee's movement, to throw beyond the Rapidan a force sufficient
+to prevent Pope's passage of that river. After Cedar Mountain, Jackson
+had disappeared as if the earth had swallowed him up. It was believed
+in the North that the advance of Pope's masses had cut him off from the
+main army and locked him up in the Shenandoah Valley; while the
+South--equally ignorant of his designs and confident of their
+success--rested on the rumor that he had said:
+
+"Send me more men and no orders!"
+
+Suddenly a beacon flashed into the sky, telling in the flames from the
+depots at Manassas and Bristow Stations that the famous passage of
+Thoroughfare Gap had been made--millions of property, stores and
+rolling-stock given to feed the flames. Jackson was in Pope's rear!
+
+This Confederate corps now fronted toward the main army of Lee, and the
+bragging Federal found himself between the upper and nether millstones.
+Still he had little doubt that he could turn upon the small force of
+Jackson and crush it before Lee could advance to his rescue. Following
+this plan, and depending also upon the heavy masses Burnside was
+bringing down to him from Fredericksburg, Pope attacked Jackson in
+detail at Bristow and at Manassas, with no other effect than to be
+repulsed heavily in both instances.
+
+The attack, however, warned Jackson of the enemy's purpose and of his
+own critical position; and, on the night of August 28th, he made a
+masterly flank movement that put him in possession of the old battle-field
+of Manassas plains; at the same time opening his communications with Lee's
+advance.
+
+In all this, General Stuart gave most efficient aid both in beating
+back heavy attacks of the enemy's cavalry, and in keeping Jackson
+advised of the course of Pope's retreat--or advance, as it might be
+called--from Warrenton to Manassas.
+
+By the 29th of August, Longstreet's corps had effected the passage of
+Thoroughfare Gap and united with Jackson; and on that day these corps
+engaged with Pope's advance in a terrific fight, lasting from midday
+till dark--the prelude to the great drama that was next day to deluge
+the field of Manassas a second time with the blood of friend and foe.
+
+Before daylight next morning, the cannon again woke the wearied and
+battle-worn ranks, sleeping on their arms on the field they had won;
+and sent a fresh impulse to the hearts of their brothers, toiling
+steadily on to join them in the great fight to come. Heavy firing and
+sharp skirmishing for position filled the forenoon; but then the masses
+of hostile infantry joined in the shock of battle, more terrible than
+the one of the year before. The men were more disciplined and hardened
+on both sides; and the Federal leaders, feeling that their only hope
+lay in victory now, hurled brigade after brigade against the now
+vindictive and battle-thirsty Confederates.
+
+Line after line emerges from enveloping clouds of smoke, charging the
+fronts that Longstreet and Jackson steadily oppose to them. Line after
+line melts before that inevitable hail, rolling back scattered and
+impotent as the spume the angry ocean throws against a granite
+headland!
+
+Broken again and again, the Federals, with desperate gallantry, hurl
+against the unflinching crescent that pours its ceaseless rain of fire
+through them; while the great guns behind its center thunder and roll
+
+    "In the very glee of war,"
+
+sending death-winged bolts tearing and crushing through them.
+
+Through the carnival of death Hood has sent his Texans and Georgians at
+a run--their wild yells rending the dull roar of the fight; their
+bayonets flashing in a jagged line of light like hungry teeth! Jackson
+has swung gradually round the enemy's right; and Stephen Lee's
+artillery has advanced from the center--ever tearing and crashing
+through the Federal ranks, scattering terror and death in its
+unswerving path!
+
+The slaughter has been terrific. Federal and Southron have fought well
+and long. Piles of mangled and gory dead lie so mingled that gray and
+blue are undistinguished. But the wild impetuosity of the "ragged
+rebels"--nerved by the memories of this field's old glories--toned up
+by the Seven Days, and delirious with the glow of present
+victory--sweeps the Federal back and doubles his line. It breaks--fresh
+regiments pour in with deadly shot and fearful yell; the Federal line
+melts into confusion--rout! and the Second Manassas is won.
+
+The victory was as complete as that of the year before; an absolute
+rout was only saved the Federals by falling back to the reserve under
+Franklin, when the retreat became more orderly, as there was no
+pursuit.
+
+The solid fruits of the victory were the annihilation of all the plans
+of the gong-sounder, and the complete destruction of the new
+"On-to-Richmond;" the capture of over 7,000 prisoners--paroled on the
+field--and his admitted total loss of 28,000 men.
+
+New glories, too, shone around the names of Lee, Jackson, Longstreet,
+Hood, Kemper and Jenkins; and the efficient aid and splendid fighting
+of the cavalry of Stuart, Hampton and Bev Robinson, here proved that
+arm to have reached its point of highest efficiency.
+
+The heart of the South, still throbbing with triumph after the Seven
+Days and their bright corollary of Cedar Mountain, went up in one wild
+throb of joyous thanksgiving. So satisfied were the people of the
+sagacity of their leaders and the invincible valor of their troops; so
+carried away were they by the splendid reflection from the glory over
+Manassas plain--that this time they never even stopped to question why
+there had been no pursuit; why the broken enemy had not been completely
+crushed. All they felt was that Virginia was free from the invader. For
+General Loring, in the Kanawha, had driven the enemy before him and
+entirely cleared that portion of the state; while on this line he was
+hastening rapidly back to Washington to meet the expected advance of
+Lee toward the Capital.
+
+Without resting his army, the latter divided it into three corps, under
+command of Jackson, Longstreet and A. P. Hill; and moved rapidly toward
+the accomplishment of that cherished hope of the southern people--an
+offensive campaign on the enemy's soil.
+
+Jackson passed with his accustomed swiftness to the occupation of the
+heights commanding Harper's Ferry and to the investment of that
+position; while the other corps moved to the river at different points,
+to cut off the re-enforcements the alarmed Federals might send to its
+rescue. Great was the alarm and intense the excitement at Washington.
+The sudden turn of the tables--the cold dash to hopes that the bragging
+of their new hero had raised to fever heat, and the transformation of
+the crushed rebel into an avenging invader, created equal surprise as
+panic. Pope summarily dropped from the pinnacle of public favor into
+disgrace; and McClellan was the only mainstay the Federal Government
+could fall back on, to check the victorious Lee.
+
+Meanwhile, equal excitement reigned in the Rebel Capital, but it was
+joyous and triumphant. The people had long panted to see the theater of
+blood and strife transferred to the prosperous and peaceful fields of
+their enemy. They had a secure feeling that when these were torn with
+shell and drenched with carnage; when barns were rifled and crops
+trampled by hostile feet, the northern people would begin to appreciate
+the realities of a war they had so far only seen by the roseate light
+of a partial press. Secure and confident in the army that was to work
+their oracle, the hope of the South already drew triumphant pictures of
+defeated armies, harassed states, and a peace dictated from the Federal
+Capital.
+
+On the 14th of September, D. H. Hill, of Longstreet's corps--stationed
+at Boonesboro to protect Jackson's flank--was attacked by a heavy
+force. Heavily outnumbered, Hill fought a dogged and obstinate
+battle--giving and taking terrific blows, only ceasing when night
+stopped the fight. It was hard to tell which side had the best of the
+actual fighting; but the great object was gained and the next day
+Harper's Ferry, with its heavy garrison and immense supply of arms,
+stores and munitions, was surrendered to Jackson.
+
+Great was the joy in Richmond when the news of the brilliant fight at
+Boonesboro--the first passage of arms on Maryland soil--and of the
+capture of the great arsenal of the North reached her anxious people.
+It was, they felt, but the presage of the great and substantial
+triumphs that Lee and his veterans _must_ win. Higher rose their
+confidence and more secure became their calculations; and the vivid
+contrast between the ragged, shoeless and incongruous army of the South
+with the sleek, spruce garrison surrendered to them, only heightened
+the zest of the victory and the anticipation of those to follow.
+
+But a sudden check was to come to this mid-career of anticipation, and
+a pall of doubt and dismay was to drape the fair form of Hope, even in
+her infancy.
+
+Two days after the fall of Harper's Ferry--on the 17th of
+September--Lee had massed some 35,000 men on the banks of the Antietam,
+near Sharpsburg--a village ten miles north-east of Harper's Ferry.
+McClellan, pressing him hard with an army four times his own
+numbers--composed in part of raw levies and hastily-massed militia, and
+in part of the veterans of the armies of the Potomac--seemed determined
+on battle. Trusting in the valor and reliability of his troops, and
+feeling the weakness of being pressed by an enemy he might chastise,
+the southern chief calmly awaited the attack--sending couriers to
+hasten the advance of A. P. Hill, Walker and McLaws, whose divisions
+had not yet come up.
+
+Ushered in by a heavy attack the evening before--which was heavily
+repulsed--the morning of the 17th saw one of the bloodiest and most
+desperate fights in all the horrid records of that war. Hurling his
+immense masses against the rapidly dwindling Confederate line; only to
+see them reel back shattered and broken--McClellan strove to crush his
+adversary by sheer strength. No sooner would one attacking column
+waver, break, retreat--leaving a writhing and ghastly wake behind
+it--than a fresh host would hurl against the adamantine line that sunk
+and shriveled under the resistless fire, but never wavered. In all the
+fearful carnage of the war--whether resulting in gloom, like that of
+Corinth, or purchasing brilliant victory with precious blood--men never
+fought better than did that battle-torn, service-worn handful that had
+just saved Richmond--broken the glittering, brazen vessel of
+destruction; and now sent its defiant yell through hostile mountains.
+
+All that valor and endurance could do had been done; and at
+mid-afternoon the battle seemed well-nigh lost. Just then the missing
+divisions--some 12,000 men--reached the field. Wearied, unfed and
+footsore, they were; but the scent of battle rested and refreshed them
+as they went into the thickest of the fight. But even they could not
+save the day. Outnumbered and shattered, but unconquered still, the
+Confederates could not advance from the field they had held at such
+bitter cost. And when night stopped the aimless carnage, each army, too
+crippled to renew the fight, withdrew toward its base. McClellan could
+not pursue; and the Confederates fell back doggedly, sullenly, and
+recrossed into Virginia.
+
+As usual in the North, a wild howl went up against McClellan. In
+response to this _brutum fulmen_, he was promptly removed by Halleck,
+for not conquering an army that had proved itself invincible!
+
+Bitter indeed was the hour that brought to Richmond the story of
+Sharpsburg. Flushed with hope, undoubting of triumph, her citizens only
+listened for the wild cheer that would echo back from conquered
+Washington. But the sound that reached their ears was the menacing roar
+from retreating ranks that left near one-third their number stark and
+ghastly on that grim field, where the Death Angel has so darkly flapped
+his wings.
+
+Thus ended the first Maryland campaign.
+
+It had given the people their wish; it had carried the gray jackets
+over the border and stricken the enemy sorely on his own soil. But it
+had left that soil drenched with the blood of some of the bravest and
+best; the noble Branch and chivalric Starke had both fallen where their
+men lay thickest--torn and ghastly on that terrible field.
+
+The details of that field which the Richmond people gathered from the
+northern papers, deepened their gloom. And through it rose a hoarse
+whisper, swelling at last into angry query, why had the campaign
+miscarried? If the army was inadequate in numbers, why had General Lee
+carried it over that river he had never crossed before, when his own
+army was better and the enemy less prepared? And if, as stated, the men
+were ill-provided in munitions and transportation--as they were known
+to be with clothes and rations--why had Government forced its only
+bulwark well-nigh to annihilation?
+
+It mattered little, the people said, that the results had been far more
+disastrous to the North than to the South--both in prestige and loss.
+The North could far better afford it. What was the killing of a few
+thousand raw troops, or the destruction of a few thousand stand of
+arms, compared to the precious cost of holding the field at Sharpsburg?
+
+And gradually these complaints, as in all such cases, answered
+themselves; and then the vials of southern wrath began to empty over
+the unfortunate Marylanders, who had not risen to aid their brothers in
+their sore need. How unjust were these charges will soon be shown.
+
+And so the people murmured to relieve their overfull hearts, until the
+calm and steady course of the general they had never doubted, quieted
+them once more.
+
+The outcry in the North resulted in the choice of General A. E.
+Burnside to command the new invasion; and he was of course hailed as
+the augur, who was surely this time to read the oracle. Watchful, calm,
+and steadfast, the Confederate waited, through the months of
+preparation, to meet the new advance--so disposing part of his force
+about Winchester as to prevent the favorite Valley-road On-to-Richmond.
+With a renewed, and splendidly appointed, army, Burnside moved in
+November toward Fredericksburg; thinking that this time he had really
+gotten between Lee and Richmond.
+
+What was his disgust to find, when he reached the Rappahannock, that
+the Confederate army was not all at Winchester, but was before him to
+dispute his crossing. After some unavailing manoeuvers for position,
+the Federals sat down on the heights of Stafford, opposite
+Fredericksburg; made works at their leisure; and spread a perfect city
+of tents and booths over a line of some five miles. Outnumbered as he
+was, General Lee could do nothing but watch and wait for the crossing
+that must come, sooner or later; and meantime he chose his line of
+battle.
+
+Just back of Fredericksburg, stretching some two miles southward, is a
+semi-circular plain bordered by a range of hills. These stretch from
+Hamilton's crossing beyond Mayre's Hill on the left; and are covered
+with dense oak growth and a straggling fringe of pines. On these hills,
+Lee massed his artillery, to sweep the whole plain where the enemy must
+form, after his crossing; and arranged his line of battle with A. P.
+Hill holding the right and Longstreet the left. On the night of
+December 10th, Stafford Heights opened a furious bombardment of the
+town, tearing great gaps through the thickest populated quarters.
+
+Into the bitter winter night tender women and young children were
+driven, shivering with fright and cold, half clad; seeking safety from
+the screaming shells that chased them everywhere. Under this
+bombardment, the pioneers commenced their pontoons at three points. The
+storm of grape and canister was too great to contest the landing, which
+was effected next day.
+
+As the heavy fog that had obscured the sun cleared away, the regular
+lines of the Federals advanced to the attack, raked and torn by
+batteries. Broken, they were formed again, only to be mowed down
+afresh; while the scream of a thousand shells from Stafford filled the
+air with a continuous _whoo_, amid which the rattle of southern
+musketry sang ever fiercer and swifter. Then dark masses of blue came
+out of the town and formed for the charge, under a terrific fire from
+the Washington Artillery on Mayre's Hill. Steadily and fearlessly did
+Meagher's First Brigade move to the attack. Crowded into the narrow
+road, swept by the accurate fire of the Louisianians and McLaws'
+veterans--the head of the column went down, only to be filled by the
+gallant fellows behind. Into the jaws of death they came, up to the
+very works--then, with half their number dead and dying about their
+feet, they broke, the left gave way--and the bloody field was won at
+all points. The victory was terrible and complete.
+
+But it had cost dear, and the rejoicing in Richmond was tempered with
+sorrow for the loss of such as Maxcy Gregg, Cobb, and many others,
+lying cold upon the field of victory.
+
+And with the first feeling of triumph the news brought, came the
+thought that this time _surely_ the enemy would be pushed--this time he
+was indeed a prey! Broken and demoralized, with a deep river in his
+rear that he _must cross in pontoons_, the people felt that he could
+surely be destroyed before reaching his Stafford stronghold. But once
+again, as ever, the shattered and broken legions of Burnside were
+allowed two days to recover from their demoralization; to pass at
+leisure, over the trap behind them.
+
+Great was the amaze, bitter the disappointment of the people; and the
+inquiry how and why this had been done, became universal. But the
+southern people above every other feeling had now come to cherish a
+perfect and unquestioning faith in General Lee; and even while they
+wondered at a policy that invariably left a beaten enemy to recover,
+and only become stronger--still they questioned with a firm reliance
+that there _must_ be some reason, invisible to them but good and
+potent still.
+
+There were no active operations immediately succeeding Fredericksburg.
+Picket fighting; cavalry skirmishes, severe but fruitless; and
+temporary raids of the enemy to devastate the country around the rear
+of their army, and to penetrate into that beyond their lines, occupying
+the winter and early spring. But there was full leisure for the people
+to look upon the ugliest features of the war. Fredericksburg was a
+ruin, riddled with shot and shell, tenanted only by the poorest
+classes. Her once cheerful and elegant population were ruined and
+starving refugees in Richmond; the smiling tracts stretching back to
+the Potomac were one broad, houseless waste--browned by fire, and cut
+with the winding wagon-roads of the enemy. Constant incursions of his
+cavalry--for "raiding" had now become a feature of the war--harassed
+the people, everywhere removed from the immediate army lines. These
+slaughtered and drove off their cattle, stole and consumed their
+supplies, burned their barns, _and destroyed their farming utensils!_--a
+refinement of barbarity to non-combatants, never before practiced by a
+civilized race.
+
+Then, too, the news from the West, heretofore sketched, reacted on
+Richmond; and the gloom in the Capital grew deep and universal.
+Burnside had, meantime, been dismissed in disgrace for his shameful
+failure. The inevitable howl had again gone up in the North; then the
+inevitable result had come. Joseph Hooker was now the coming man--the
+war-gong was sounded more loudly than ever; the army was re-enforced to
+greater size than ever; and so equipped that its general proclaimed it
+the "finest army on the planet." Agog with preparation, and stuffed
+full with promises of certain success this time, the North forgot the
+many slips between its lips and the coveted cup of triumph, and waited
+in secure impatience for the moment when the roads would permit Hooker
+to advance.
+
+And the South waited, too--not hopefully, nor with the buoyant
+anticipation of the past, but still with a confidence in its cause and
+its defenders nowise diminished; with even more fixed determination
+never to yield, while there were muskets left and hands to grasp them.
+
+At last the movement came. Late in April, Hooker divided his immense
+army into two columns, one menacing right crossing below Fredericksburg,
+to hold the troops at that point; the other crossing above, to flank
+and pass to their rear, combining with the other wing and cutting
+communication with Richmond. Taking command in person of his right
+wing--while the left was confided to General Slocum--Hooker rapidly
+crossed the river, concentrating not less than 60,000 men on the
+Chancellorsville road, eleven miles above Fredericksburg. Grasping the
+situation at once, Lee ordered the small force there back to Mine Run,
+until re-enforced; and then, on the 2d of May, Stonewall Jackson
+completed that wonderful and painful circuit of the enemy--so brilliant
+in conception, so successful in result. Late in the afternoon he
+reached their extreme right and rear, secure and unsuspecting. Never
+stopping to rest, the Eldest Son of War hurled himself like a
+thunderbolt on the confident and intrenched enemy--scattering the
+eleventh corps (Sigel's) like chaff, and hurling them, broken and
+demoralized, upon their supports. The very key of the enemy's campaign
+was driven out; and the "one hour more of daylight!" the hero-general
+prayed for--or the merciful sparing of his priceless life by the God of
+Battles--would have shown complete defeat, even annihilation, of
+Hooker's right.
+
+But it was not so written in the Book of Life! A wise dispensation,
+whose object we may see, removed the best and greatest soldier of the
+war--sorely stricken by the hands of his own devoted men, in the
+darkness; the routed enemy was given, by this unequaled misfortune, and
+by fast falling night, opportunity for partial reorganization.
+
+Hooker's right was turned and doubled upon his center; but he was still
+strong in numbers, and had the advantage of position and heavy works,
+abatis and rifle-pits.
+
+Next morning General Lee assaulted in force, all along the line; and
+after heavy and bloody fighting, drove him from his position at all
+points. Sedgwick, however, had crossed the river at Fredericksburg,
+driving the Confederates from the town and carrying Mayre's Hill by
+assault. This acted as a check to Lee, who was forced to detach
+McLaws' division to drive Sedgwick back from his own rear. This he
+successfully accomplished, and--Anderson reaching McLaws just in
+time--on the 4th of May, the last of the series of the battles of the
+Rappahannock resulted in complete defeat of Sedgwick.
+
+Still, Hooker was permitted to withdraw his army across the river; but
+the campaign of the week had been successful in utterly breaking his
+plans and clearly defeating him in every engagement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+OVER AGAIN, TO GETTYSBURG.
+
+
+The campaign of the Rappahannock had shown brilliant flashes of
+strategy and valor. It had proved that a badly-provided army of less
+than 50,000 Confederates--barefooted, blanketless and half-fed, but
+properly led--could, even when surrounded and out-flanked, defeat and
+set at naught 120,000 of the best-appointed troops ever sent against
+them. It revived, in some degree, the drooping spirits of the people;
+but a sorrow that rose to agony wrung the heart of the South, when what
+was earth of her peerless, pure and idolized Jackson was laid in the
+Capitol, wrapped in the flag he had made immortal.
+
+Shattered and emaciated veterans, noble-browed matrons and pale,
+delicate maidens gathered around that sacred bier, in the awed hush of
+a common sorrow, too deep for words. Tears coursed over cheeks that had
+been bronzed in the fire of battle; sobs rose from hearts that had lost
+their dearest and nearest without a murmur, save--_Thy will be done!_
+And little children were lifted up to look upon what was left of him
+who would ever be the greatest one of earth to them. And through the
+coffin-lid, that calm, still face seemed hourly to grow more holy and
+more radiant; the light of battle faded out from its softening lines
+and the seal of the God of Peace rested in plain token upon the
+glorified brow.
+
+Truly did every one who looked upon it feel:
+
+    "O, gracious God! not gainless is the loss!
+      A glorious sunbeam gilds thy sternest frown--
+    For, while his country staggers 'neath the Cross,
+      He rises with the Crown!"
+
+And when the funeral procession passed the streets of the Capital, the
+whole people stood bareheaded and mute. Following the wailing notes of
+the dirge with unsteady feet, moved the escort of ragged and war-worn
+soldiers--their tattered banners furled--and every torn dress and
+dented gun-carriage speaking eloquently of the right they had earned to
+sorrow for him. It was no mocking pageant. No holiday soldiery, spruce
+and gay, followed that precious bier--no chattering crowds pointed out
+the beauties of the sight. Solemn and mourning the escort passed; sad
+and almost voiceless the people turned away and, going to their homes,
+sat with their sorrow.
+
+After the Rappahannock fights came a lull of several weeks; and it was
+early in June when General Lee advanced to force the enemy out of the
+state. His army had been reorganized and strengthened as much as possible;
+General R. S. Ewell was chosen successor to Jackson; and to him, Longstreet
+and A. P. Hill--raised now to a full lieutenant-general--was given command
+of the three corps.
+
+Diverging from the main line, after some little coquetting for
+position, Ewell charged Jackson's "foot cavalry" upon Winchester,
+capturing the town with its heavy depots of stores and munitions; while
+Hill kept Hooker amused, and Longstreet slowly forged his way toward
+the river.
+
+Great was the joy of the poor town when it once more welcomed the
+gray-jackets. From the beginning it had been battle-ground and billet
+of both armies a dozen times. Tossed from Federal to Confederate
+possession--a very shuttlecock of war--it had been harassed, robbed and
+pillaged by the one; drained of the very dregs by free gifts to the
+other. But the people of Winchester never faltered in their faith; and
+to-day her noble women go down the roll of heroism and steadfast truth,
+hand in hand with the noblest ones of our history.
+
+And the joy in Winchester was somewhat reflected at the harassed and
+eager-watching Capital. Undiminished by the sorrows of the last fall,
+undimmed by its reverses, still burned the southern desire to plant its
+victorious flag on hostile soil. It was neither a thirst for vengeance
+nor an empty boast; rather a yearning for relief--a craving for the
+rest from blood and battle-shocks that such a campaign would give.
+
+It was with deep satisfaction, then, that Richmond heard that Ewell had
+crossed the Potomac at Williamsport, pushed on through Hagerstown and,
+leaving Early at York, had passed to Carlisle; that Longstreet had
+followed him at Williamsport; and that A. P. Hill had crossed at
+Shepherdstown and pushed for Chambersburg, reaching there on the 27th
+of June.
+
+Hooker, falling rapidly back upon Washington--at which point he
+believed the movement aimed--had been sacrificed, and with more justice
+than usual, to popular clamor. General Geo. G. Meade replaced him in
+command, and strained every nerve to collect numbers of men,
+irrespective of quality--seeming to desire to crush the invasion by
+weight alone.
+
+Wild was the alarm in the North when the rebel advance had penetrated
+the heart of Pennsylvania; when York was held by Early and laid under
+contribution and Harrisburg was threatened by Ewell. The whole North
+rose in its might. Governors Seymour, of New York, Andrew, of
+Massachusetts, and Curtin, of Pennsylvania, put their whole militia at
+the service of the President; the energy at Washington, momentarily
+paralyzed, soon recovered; and by the last day of the month, Meade had
+collected an army of near 200,000 men. Many of these were, of course,
+new levies and raw militia; but near one-half were the veterans of the
+armies of McClellan, Burnside and Hooker; men who had fought gallantly
+on southern soil and might be expected to do so on their own.
+
+It seems that Lee's intention was to flank Meade; and leaving him in
+Maryland, to pass into Pennsylvania, occupy Harrisburg, destroy
+communications between Washington and the North and reduce
+Philadelphia.
+
+Such, at least, was the universal belief of the southern people; and so
+rapidly did their mercurial temperament rise under it, and so great was
+their reliance in the army that was to accomplish the brilliant
+campaign, that they looked upon it already as a fixed fact. Now, at
+last, they felt, we will teach the Yankees what invasion really means.
+With their Capital leaguered, their President and Cabinet fugitives by
+water, and their great thoroughfare and second city in our hands, we
+will dictate our own terms, and end the war.
+
+Such _might_ have been the case, had Gettysburg been won, or had that
+battle never been fought.
+
+If Lee's intention was to flank Meade and avoid a fight at the outset
+of the campaign, it was thwarted by the rapid concentration of troops
+in his front, near Gettysburg. To prevent being struck in detail and
+secure his communications, Lee was forced to recall Ewell and to
+concentrate his army. Hill and Longstreet were ordered up from
+Chambersburg; and by July 1st the opposing armies faced each other;
+each feeling its way cautiously and knowing that the result of this
+grapple of the giants must in a great measure decide the war. Meade's
+defeat would lose Washington, leave the heart of the North open, and
+demoralize the only army in that section. Lee's defeat, on the other
+hand, would jeopardy his very existence and probably leave Richmond an
+easy prey to fresh advance.
+
+But in Richmond none of this was felt; for all that was known of the
+army was its victorious entry into Pennsylvania; and absurdly
+exaggerated stories of the dire panic and demoralization of the enemy
+received perfect credence.
+
+Then the shock came.
+
+On the 1st of July, Hill's advance encountered the enemy under
+Reynolds; and--after a fierce struggle, in which their general was
+killed--drove them back into and through the town. Here they were
+reformed on a semi-circular crest of hills; massing their artillery and
+holding their position until dark. Their loss was heavier far than
+Hill's, and the men not in as good fighting trim; but it was very late,
+and General Lee feared pressing their reserve. Had he known that it was
+only the advance of Meade, broken and demoralized, that held the crest,
+he could undoubtedly have carried and occupied it. The fearful battles
+of the next two days, with their terrific loss of life, doubtless hung
+on this lost opportunity.
+
+By next morning the enemy had massed the remainder of his army behind
+these hills, now frowning with two hundred guns and blue with one dense
+line of soldiery. Under a fearful cannonade, through a hail of bullets
+that nothing living might stand, Stewart works his way slowly and
+steadily forward on the enemy's left; driving him from line after line
+of works and holding every inch gained, by dogged valor and
+perseverance. Hays and Hoke (of Early's) advance into the ploughing
+fire of the rifled guns--march steadily on and charge over their own
+dead and dying, straight for Cemetery Heights. This is the key of the
+enemy's position. That once gained the day is won; and on the brave
+fellows go, great gaps tearing through their ranks--answering every
+fresh shock with a savage yell. Line after line of the enemy gives way
+before that terrible charge. The breastwork is occupied--they are
+driven out! Melting under the horrid fire, unfaltering still--the
+gray-jackets reach the very hill!
+
+Nothing mortal can stand the enfilading fire. They give way--again they
+charge--they are at the very works! But the fire is too heavy for their
+thinned ranks to stand; and night falls over the field, illumined by
+the red flash of cannon--drenched with blood and horrid with carnage of
+friend and foe. But there is no advantage gained, save a slight advance
+of Stewart's position on their left.
+
+With the morning of the third day came the conviction that the vital
+struggle must be made for Cemetery Heights. Lee _must_ win them--and
+then for victory!
+
+All the artillery was massed upon this point. Then awoke the infernal
+echoes of such an artillery duel as the war was never to see again. The
+air was black with flying shot and shell, and their wild _whoo!_ made
+one continuous song through the sultry noon. Forth from the canopy of
+smoke and their screen of trees, comes the chosen storming
+party--Pickett's division of Virginians; supported on the right by
+Wilcox and on the left by Heth's division under Pettigrew, its own
+general having been wounded in the head the day before.
+
+Unmindful of the fire-sheeted storm into which they march--down into
+the Valley of the Shadow of Death stride that devoted band. Now, they
+emerge into the Emmetsburg road, straight on for the coveted heights.
+On! never blenching, never faltering--with great gaps crashing through
+them--filling the places of the dead with the living next to die--On!
+into the jaws of death goes the forlorn hope! They are at the
+rise--they reach the crest; and then _their batteries are suddenly
+silent_!
+
+Behind them is the ghastly road, furrowed and ploughed by ceaseless
+shot, slippery with blood and dotted thick with their writhing,
+bleeding brothers. Behind them is death--defeat! Before them a hundred
+belching cannon--a dense, dark mass of blue, relieved only by the
+volleying flash that shakes and rolls along their shattered line! Still
+up they go! on--ever on! That small Virginia division, shattered,
+bleeding--_and alone_ reaches the works--fights for one moment and
+then--_has won them_!
+
+But there are no supports--Pettigrew has not come up; and the decimated
+Virginians are literally overwhelmed by the fresh masses poured upon
+them. Broken, torn, exhausted, they fall back--scattered into terrible
+death-dealing knots, that fight their way sullenly and terribly home to
+their own lines!
+
+That charge--unequaled in history--has fearfully crippled the enemy. He
+can not pursue. But it has failed, and the battle of Gettysburg is
+over!
+
+That night General Lee fell back toward Hagerstown, turning in his
+retreat to show front to the enemy that dared not attack. Nine days he
+stayed on the Maryland shore, waiting the advance that never came; then
+he recrossed the river, on the night of the 13th, and again fell back
+to the Rappahannock lines.
+
+The second Maryland campaign had failed!
+
+Into the midst of the general elation in Richmond crashed the wild
+rumors from the fight. We had driven the enemy through the town; we
+held the height; we had captured Meade and 40,000 prisoners. Washington
+was at our mercy; and Lee would dictate terms of peace from
+Philadelphia!
+
+These were the first wild rumors; eagerly sought and readily credited
+by the people. They were determined to believe and would see no change
+of plan in General Lee's forced battle at Gettysburg, instead of on the
+plains at Harrisburg.
+
+Then over the general joy, creeping none knew whence nor how, but
+rapidly gaining shape and substance, came a shadow of doubt. Crowds
+besieged the War Department, anxious, excited, but still hopeful. Then
+the truth came; tempered by the Government, but wildly exaggerated by
+northern sources.
+
+Down to zero dropped the spirits of the people; down to a depth of
+despairing gloom, only the deeper from the height of their previous
+exultation. The dark cloud from Gettysburg rolled back over Richmond,
+darkened and made dense a hundred fold in the transit.
+
+The terrible carnage of that field was exaggerated by rumor. Pickett's
+gallant division was declared annihilated; it was believed that the
+army had lost 20,000 men; and it was known that such priceless blood as
+that of Garnett, Pettigrew, Armistead, Pender, Kemper, Semmes and
+Barksdale had sealed the dreadful defeat.
+
+It only needed what came the next day, to dash the last drop from the
+cup of hope the people still tried to hold to their lips; and that was
+the news of the fall of Vicksburg, on the 4th of July.
+
+And out of the thick darkness that settled on the souls of all, came up
+the groan of inquiry and blame. Why had the campaign failed? they
+asked. Why had General Lee been forced into battle on ground of the
+enemy's choosing? Why had he attacked works that only an army like his
+would have made an effort to take, when he could have flanked the enemy
+and forced him to fight him on his own terms? Why had the
+Government--as was alleged--allowed the crucial test of liberty--the
+crisis campaign of the war--to be undertaken without proper
+transportation and supplies of ammunition?
+
+And why, above all, had the general they still loved and trusted, spite
+of their doubts--why had he sent their beloved Virginians unsupported
+to the shambles? Why had he fought the whole Yankee army with one
+division?
+
+Such were the murmurs on every side. And though they gradually died
+away, after the first shock of surprise and grief had passed; still
+they left a vague feeling behind that all was not well; that grave
+errors had been committed somewhere. For the southern people could not
+get over the feeling that there were no odds of numbers and position
+that could cause defeat to a southern army, properly supplied and
+properly handled. So, although the murmurs ceased, the conviction did
+not die with them that the battle of Gettysburg was a grave error; that
+there had been a useless waste of priceless lives; and that the
+campaign had been nullified, which else had ended the war.
+
+And unlike other post-disaster conclusions of the southern people, this
+did not die out. It only became strengthened and fixed, the more light
+was thrown on the vexed questions and the more they were canvassed. The
+excuses of the War Department that ammunition had given out, were
+scornfully rejected. Then, said the people, that was your fault.
+General Lee could not depend--in a campaign in the heart of an enemy's
+country and far away from his base--upon his captures. And as to his
+not intending to fight a pitched battle, how could he calculate upon
+that, or why then did he fight it; and upon ground of the enemy's
+choice?
+
+And with the other objections to the conduct of the campaign, came that
+of the general's treatment of the people of Pennsylvania. It was felt
+to be an excess of moderation to a people whose armies had not spared
+the sword, the torch and insult to our unprotected tracts; and it was
+argued--without a shadow of foundation--that Lee's knightly courtesy to
+the Dutch dames of Pennsylvania had disgusted his troops.
+
+Those starving and barefooted heroes would have thought it right if
+their beloved chief had fallen down and worshiped the makers of
+apple-butter! They felt he could do no wrong; and it was indirect
+injustice to the gallant dead that dotted Cemetery Hill--and to the no
+less gallant living ready to march up to those frowning heights
+again--to intimate that any action of their general would, or _could_,
+have made them fight better.
+
+Excessive as was that moderation--ill advised as it might have proved,
+in case of a long campaign--it could have had no possible effect on the
+fortunes of the disastrous and brief one just ended.
+
+Equally unjust as that popular folly, was the aspersion upon southern
+sympathizers in Maryland, that they did not come forth to aid their
+friends. The part of Maryland through which southern armies passed in
+both campaigns were sparsely settled, and that with strong Union
+population. The Marylander of Baltimore and the lower counties--whatever
+may have been his wishes, was gagged and bound too closely to express,
+far less carry them out. Baltimore was filled with an armed guard and
+was, moreover, the passage-way of thousands of troops; the lower
+counties were watched and guarded. And, moreover, the Confederate army
+was not _practically_ in Maryland, but from the 20th of June to the 1st
+of July.
+
+The taunt to the down-trodden Marylanders--oppressed and suffering
+bravely for conscience sake--we must in justice to ourselves believe
+only the result of grief and disappointment. Men, like goods, can only
+be judged "by sample;" and, from the beginning to the end of the war,
+Maryland may point to Archer, Winder, Elzey, Johnson and many another
+noble son--unhonored now, or filling, perhaps, a nameless grave--and
+ask if such men came from among a people who talked but would not act!
+And so in sorrow, disappointment and bitterness ended the second
+Maryland campaign.
+
+And with it ended all hopes of carrying the war beyond our own gates in
+future; happy could we beat it thence, baffled and crushed as ever
+before.
+
+For the short, sharp raid of General Early--penetrating to the gates of
+the Capital and with possible capabilities of even entering them--can
+hardly be considered an organized scheme of invasion. It was rather the
+spasmodic effort by a sharp, hard blow to loosen the tightening and
+death-dealing grip upon our throat, and give us time for one long, deep
+breath before the final tug for life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE CONFEDERACY AFLOAT.
+
+
+Measured by the popular test, success, the Confederate States Navy
+would, perhaps, be accorded little merit. Even cursory examination into
+the vast difficulties and discouragements with which it contended, will
+do it prompt justice.
+
+No men who joined the southern service sacrificed more than her navy
+officers. The very flower of the old service, they had grown gray in
+their slow promotion to its positions of honor; their families depended
+for sole support upon the pittance of pay they received. Still they
+hesitated not a moment to range themselves under the banners their
+native states had unfurled. Once there, no men labored more
+faithfully--and efficiently. Subject to misconstruction, to jealousy,
+to petty annoyances--and later, to the most pinching straits of
+poverty--they were ever uncomplaining and ever ready.
+
+Many and varied were the calls upon them. They commanded land
+batteries, trained raw gunners and drilled lubberly conscripts; they
+were bridge-builders, carpenters, wood-cutters, chemists and colliers;
+and, at the best, it was hard for the veteran who had, for forty years,
+trod the deck of a frigate, to be cooped in the contracted limits of a
+razeed tug, or an armed pilot boat. But once there he made the best of
+it; and how well he wrought in the new sphere, the names of Hollins,
+Lynch, Buchanan and Tucker still attest.
+
+At the time the first Army Bill was passed by Congress, a law was also
+made securing to resigned naval officers the same rank they held in the
+United States service. But there was scarcely a keel in Confederate
+waters, and small indeed was the prospect for the future; so these
+impatient spirits, panting for active work, were put into unsuitable
+positions at the very outset. Later, a bill was passed for a
+provisional navy, but there was no fleet for their occupation. The
+department, therefore, used the discretion given it to confer a few
+honorary titles, and to appoint a vast number of subordinate officers,
+for shore duty in its work-shops and navy-yards.
+
+The acceptability of Mr. Mallory to the people, at the outset of his
+career, has been noted. They believed that his long experience in the
+committee of naval affairs was guarantee for the important trust
+confided to him. Moreover, he was known to be relied upon by Mr. Davis
+as a man of solid intellect, of industry and perseverance. If his
+knowledge of naval affairs was entirely theoretical, it mattered little
+so long as he could turn that knowledge to practical account, by the
+counsel and aid of some of the most efficient of the scientific sailors
+of the Union.
+
+Mr. Mallory took charge of the Navy Department in March, '61. At this
+time the question of iron-clads had attention of naval builders on both
+sides of the Atlantic; and deeming them indispensable to naval warfare,
+the Secretary's first movement was a strong memoir to Congress, urging
+immediate and heavy appropriations for their construction at New
+Orleans and Mobile. With a treasury empty and immovably averse to
+anything like decisive action, the astute lawgivers of Montgomery
+hesitated and doubted. The most that could be forced from them were
+small appropriations for the fitting out of privateers.
+
+The first venture, the "Sumter," was bought, equipped and put into
+commission at the end of April; and in the course of a few weeks she
+ran out of New Orleans, in command of Raphael Semmes, and the stars and
+bars were floating solitary, but defiant, over the seas. The history of
+her cruise, the terror she spread among the enemy's shipping, and the
+paralysis she sent to the very heart of his commerce, are too well
+known to need repetition here. Badly-built craft as she was for such a
+service, she was still more badly equipped; but so eminently successful
+was she that both Government and Congress must have been incurably
+blind, not to put a hundred like her upon every sea where the Union
+flag could float.
+
+Had one-twentieth the sum frittered away in useless iron-clads, and
+worse than useless "gunboats," been put into saucy and swift wasps like
+the "Sumter," their stings must have driven northern commerce from the
+sea; and the United States ports would have been more effectually
+blockaded, from a thousand miles at sea, than were those of the
+southern fleet-bound coast.
+
+It may not be irrelevant here to allude to the finale of the
+Confederate cruisers; and to recall the most inane farce of all those
+enacted by the madmen who held power in '66.
+
+In the January of that year, Raphael Semmes was seized and thrown into
+prison. He was now charged--not with having violated his parole given
+to General Grant, who was personally and morally responsible for his
+persecution--not with doing aught but "obeying the laws themselves;"
+but he was charged with having escaped, the year before, from the
+custody of a man whose prisoner he was not and had never been--with
+having broken from a durance that ought to have existed! From
+incontrovertible testimony, we know that Captain Semmes only raised the
+white flag, after his vessel began to sink; that he stayed on her deck
+until she went down beneath him; that no boat came to him from the
+"Kearsage," and that he was in the water full an hour, before the boat
+of the "Deerhound" picked him up and carried him aboard that yacht.
+
+But radical hatred, and thirst for vengeance on a disarmed enemy,
+raised the absurd plea that Semmes became a prisoner of war by raising
+the white flag; that by so doing he gave _a moral parole_! and
+violated it by saving himself from a watery grave and afterward taking
+up arms again. It is only a proof that the country was a little less
+mad than the radical leaders, that the unheard-of absurdity of its Navy
+Department was not sustained by popular opinion. It would have no doubt
+been chivalric and beautiful in Raphael Semmes to have drowned in the
+ocean, because the boat of the "Kearsage" would not pick him up after
+accepting his "moral parole;" but, as he did not see it in that light,
+and as he was never called upon to surrender by any officer of that
+ship, he was perfectly free the moment his own deck left him in the
+waves. The white flag was but a token that he desired to save the lives
+of his men; and would surrender them and himself, if opportunity were
+given. But even granting the nonsensical claim that it made him a
+prisoner--the laws of war demand absolute safety for prisoners; and the
+fact of the "Kearsage" leaving him to drown was, in itself, a release.
+
+There is no necessity for defense of Captain Semmes' position; but it
+may be well to record how blind is the hate which still attempts to
+brand as "_Pirate_" a regularly-commissioned officer in service, whose
+long career gained him nothing but respect under the northern--nothing
+but glory under the southern flag. If Raphael Semmes be a "pirate,"
+then was the northern recognition of belligerents but an active lie!
+Then was Robert E. Lee a marauder--Wade Hampton but a bushwhacker, and
+Joseph E. Johnston but a guerrilla!
+
+When the "Sumter" began her work, she was soon followed by the
+"Florida"--a vessel somewhat better, but still of the same class. Under
+the dashing and efficient Maffitt, the "Florida," too, wrought daring
+destruction. Her record, like that of her rival, is too familiar for
+repetition; as is the later substitution of the "Alabama" for the
+worn-out "Sumter."
+
+During the long war, these three vessels--and but two of them at one
+time--were the only cruisers the Confederacy had afloat; until just
+before its close, the "Shenandoah" went out to strike fresh terror to
+the heart and pocket of New England. Then, also, that strong-handed and
+cool-headed amphiboid, Colonel John Taylor Wood, made--with wretched
+vessels and hastily-chosen crews--most effective raids on the coasting
+shipping of the Northeast.
+
+One popular error pervades all which has been said or written, on both
+sides of the line, about the Confederate navy. This is the general
+title of "privateer," given to all vessels not cooped up in southern
+harbors. Regularly-commissioned cruisers, like the "Alabama" and
+"Florida," the property of the Navy Department, and commanded by its
+regularly-commissioned officers, were no more "privateers" than were
+the "Minnesota," or "Kearsage."
+
+There was a law passed, regulating the issue of letters of marque; and
+from time to time much was heard of these in the South. But after the
+first spirt of the saucy little "Jeff Davis," not more than two or
+three ever found their way to sea; and even these accomplished nothing.
+
+At one time, a company with heavy capital was gotten up in Richmond,
+for the promotion of such enterprises; but it was looked upon as a job
+and was little successful in any sense.
+
+So, with all the ports of the world open to belligerent ships; with
+unsurpassed sailors "panting for the very lack of element" in musty
+offices, privateers did not increase in number; and one of the most
+effective engines of legitimate warfare was but illustrated, instead of
+being utilized.
+
+Meantime, the Navy Department had ceased to importune for
+appropriations to build iron-clads at New Orleans; an omission that
+carried the grave responsibility for loss of that city, and for the far
+graver disaster of the closing of the whole river and the blockade of
+the trans-Mississippi. For had the "Louisiana" been furnished with two
+companion ships of equal strength--or even had she been completely
+finished and not had been compelled to succumb to accidents within,
+while she braved the terrific fire from without--the Federal fleet
+might have been crushed like egg-shells; the splendid exertions of
+Hollins and Kennon in the past would not have been nullified; the blood
+of McIntosh and Huger would not have been useless sacrifice; and the
+homes of the smiling city and the pure vicinage of her noble daughters
+might not have been polluted by the presence of the commandant, who
+crawled in after the victorious fleet.
+
+Norfolk, however, had come into southern possession, by the secession
+of Virginia; and the vast resources of her navy-yard--only partly
+crippled by the haste of the Federal retreat--stimulated the
+Government. A meager appropriation was passed for the construction of
+the "Merrimac;" or rather for an iron-clad ship upon the hull of the
+half-destroyed frigate of that name. Had the whole amount necessary for
+her completion been given, the vessel would have been ready weeks
+before she was, under the dribblet system adopted. Then, indeed, it
+would be hard to overestimate her value; damage to shipping in Hampton
+Roads; or her ultimate effect upon McClellan's campaign.
+
+No appropriation for an object of vital import could be shaken free
+from its bonds of red tape; and this one was saddled with an incubus,
+in the bill for the "construction of one hundred gunboats." The scheme
+to build that number of wooden vessels of small size seemed equally
+short-sighted and impracticable. They could only be built on inland
+rivers and creeks, to prevent attacks by the enemy's heavier vessels;
+and hence they were necessarily small and ineffective. The interior
+navy-yards had, moreover, to be guarded against surprises by the
+enemy's cavalry; and as men were so scarce, it was generally arranged
+that the navy-yard should follow the army lines. Constantly shifting
+position--caused by the rapid movements of the enemy, left these
+impromptu ship-yards unprotected; and then a small party of raiders
+would either burn them, or force their builders to do so. It was not
+until the appropriation was nearly spent--although _not one efficient_
+gunboat of this class was ever finished--that the system was abandoned
+as utterly worthless and impracticable.
+
+Had the large sum thus wasted been applied to the purchase of swift and
+reliable cruisers--or to the speedy and energetic completion of one
+iron-clad at a time--it would have read a far more telling story to the
+enemy, both in prestige and result.
+
+But even in the case of these, energy and capital were divided and
+distracted. On completion of the "Merrimac," there were in the course
+of construction at New Orleans, two mailed vessels of a different
+class--one of them only a towboat covered with railroad iron. There
+were also two small ones on the stocks at Charleston, and another at
+Savannah. The great difficulty of procuring proper iron; of rolling it
+when obtained; and the mismanagement of transportation, even when the
+plates were ready--made the progress of all these boats very slow.
+Practicality would have concentrated the whole energy of the Department
+upon one at a time; not have left them all unfinished, either to prove
+utterly useless at the trying moment, or to fall a prey to superior
+force of the enemy.
+
+The plan of the "Merrimac" was unique, in the submersion of her
+projecting eaves; presenting a continuous angling coat of mail even
+below the water-surface. She was built upon the razeed hull of the old
+"Merrimac," of four-and-a-half-inch iron, transverse plates; and
+carried an armament of seven-inch rifled Brooke guns, made expressly
+for her. There was much discussion at one time, as to whom the credit
+for her plan was really due. It finally was generally conceded,
+however, that her origin and perfection were due to Commander John M.
+Brooke; and the terrible banded rifle-gun and bolt, she used with such
+effect on the "Cumberland," was his undisputed invention.
+
+Much wonder had the good people of Norfolk expressed in their frequent
+visits to the strange-looking, turtle-like structure. Day by day she
+slowly grew; and at length, after weary work and weary waiting, took on
+her armament; then her crew was picked carefully from eager volunteers:
+her grand old captain took his place, and all was ready for the trial.
+
+During all this time Hampton Roads had been gay with Federal shipping.
+Frigates, gunboats, transports and supply ships ran defiantly up and
+down; laughing at the futile efforts of the point batteries to annoy
+them, and indulging in a dream of security that was to be most rudely
+broken. The "Susquehanna" frigate, with heaviest armament in the
+Federal navy, laid in the channel at Newport News, blockading the mouth
+of James river and cutting off communication from Norfolk. The
+"Congress" frigate was lying near her, off the News; while the
+"Minnesota" lay below, under the guns of Fortress Monroe. The Ericsson
+Monitor--the first of her class, and equally an experiment as her rebel
+rival--had come round a few days before to watch the "Virginia," as the
+new iron-clad was now rechristened.
+
+The great ship being ready, Flag-Officer Buchanan ordered the "Jamestown,"
+Captain Barney, and the "Yorktown," Captain Tucker, down from Richmond;
+while he went out with the "Raleigh" and "Beaufort"--two of the
+smallest class of gunboats, saved by Captain Lynch from Roanoke Island.
+This combined force--four of the vessels being frail wooden shells,
+formerly used as river passenger boats--carried only _twenty-seven_
+guns. But Buchanan steamed boldly out, on the morning of the 8th of
+March, to attack an enemy carrying quite _two hundred and twenty_ of
+the heaviest guns in the United States navy!
+
+It was a moment of dreadful suspense for the soldiers in the batteries
+and the people of Norfolk. They crowded the wharves, the steeples, and
+the high points of the shore; and every eye was strained upon the black
+specks in the harbor.
+
+Slowly--with somewhat of majesty in her stolid, even progress--the
+"Virginia" steamed on--down the harbor--past the river batteries--out
+into the Roads. Steadily she kept her way, heading straight for the
+"Cumberland;" and close to her stuck the frail wooden boats that a
+single shell might have shattered. On she went--into full range. Then
+suddenly, as if from one match, shipping and shore batteries belched
+forth the great shells hurtling over her, hissing into the
+water--bounding from her side like raindrops from a rock! On she
+headed--straight for the "Cumberland;" the crew of that ship steadily
+working their heated guns and wondering at the strange, silent monster
+that came on so evenly, so slowly--so regardless alike of shot and
+shell. Suddenly she spoke.
+
+The terrible shell from her bow-gun tore the huge frigate from stern to
+bow; driving in her quarter, dismounting guns and scattering death
+along its course. Shocked and staggered, Uncle Sam's tars still stuck
+to their work. Once more the "Cumberland" delivered her whole
+broadside, full in her enemy's face at pistol range. It was her death
+volley. The submerged ram had struck home. A great rent yawned in the
+ship's side; she filled rapidly--careened--went down by the bows--her
+flag still flying--her men still at quarters!
+
+On past her--scarce checked in her deadly-slow course--moved the
+"Virginia." Then she closed on the "Congress," and one terrific
+broadside after another raked the frigate; till, trembling like a
+card-house, she hauled down her colors and raised the white flag. The
+"Beaufort" ranged alongside and received the flag of the "Congress",
+and her captain, William R. Smith, and Lieutenant Pendergrast as
+prisoners of war. These officers left their side-arms on the "Beaufort"
+and returned to the "Congress;" when--notwithstanding the white flag--a
+hot fire was opened from shore upon the "Beaufort", and she was
+compelled to withdraw. Lieutenant Robert Minor was then sent in a boat
+from the "Virginia" to fire the frigate; but was badly wounded by a
+Minie-ball, from under the white flag; and Captain Buchanan was
+seriously hit in the leg by the same volley. Then it was determined to
+burn the "Congress" with hot shot.
+
+There is no room for comment here; and no denial of these facts has
+ever been made, or attempted.
+
+Meanwhile, the frigates "Minnesota", "St. Lawrence" and "Roanoke" had
+advanced and opened fire on the "Virginia"; but upon her approach to
+meet it, they retired under the guns of the fort; the "Minnesota" badly
+damaged by the heavy fire of her antagonist, while temporarily aground.
+
+Next day the "Virginia" had a protracted but indecisive fight with the
+"Monitor;" the latter's lightness preventing her being run down and
+both vessels seeming equally impenetrable. Later in the day the
+victorious ship steamed back to Norfolk, amid the wildest enthusiasm of
+its people. The experiment had proved a success beyond the wildest
+expectation: and a new era seemed opened in naval warfare.
+
+But however great the meed of praise deserved by the iron ship and her
+crew, at least as much was due to those of the wooden gun-boats that
+had so gallantly seconded her efforts. All day long had those frail
+shells been urged into the thickest of that terrific fire. Shot flew
+by, over and through them; and it seemed miraculous that they were not
+torn into shreds!
+
+The success of the "Virginia", while it gave food for much comment at
+the North and in Europe, had the effect of stimulating the Department
+to renewed exertions elsewhere. At the same time it raised the navy
+greatly in the estimation of the people, who began now to see of what
+material it was composed, to accomplish so much with such limited means
+and opportunity. And this opinion was to be strengthened, from time to
+time, by the brilliant flashes of naval daring that came to illumine
+some of the darkest hours of the war.
+
+Who does not remember that defense of Drewry's Bluff when Eben Farrand
+had only three gunboat crews and _three hastily mounted guns_, with
+which to drive back the heavy fleet that knew Richmond city lay
+helpless at its mercy?
+
+And those desperate, yet brilliant fights off New Orleans, against
+every odds of metal, numbers, and worse, of internal mismanagement. Do
+they not illustrate the character of the navy, and bring it out in bold
+relief of heroism? Nor should we forget the brief but brilliant life of
+the "Arkansas"--born in danger and difficulty; surrounded on every side
+by numberless active foes; and finally dying, not from the blow of an
+enemy, but from the fault of those who sent her forth unfinished and
+incomplete!
+
+Those trying times recall the conduct of Captain Lynch and his squadron
+of shells; and of the veteran Cooke in the batteries, on the dark day
+that lost Roanoke Island. Nor may we lose sight of the splendid conduct
+of that latter grim old seadog, when, returning wounded and
+prison-worn, he bore down on Plymouth in the "Albemarle" and crushed
+the Federal gunboats like egg-shells.
+
+And conspicuous, even among these fellow-sailors, stands John Taylor
+Wood. Quick to plan and strong to strike, he ever and anon would
+collect a few trusty men and picked officers; glide silently out from
+Richmond, where his duties as colonel of cavalry on the President's
+staff chained him most of the time. Soon would come an echo from the
+frontier, telling of quick, sharp struggle; victorious boarding and a
+Federal gunboat or two given to the flames. I have already alluded to
+his dashing raid upon the fishery fleet; but his cunning capture of the
+gunboats in the Rappahannock, or his cool and daring attack on the
+"Underwriter," during Pickett's movement on Newberne, would alone give
+him undying reputation.
+
+The United States had a navy in her waters that would class as the
+third maritime power of the world; and this she rapidly increased by
+every appliance of money, skill and energy. She bought and built ships
+and spent vast sums and labor in experiments in ordnance, armoring and
+machinery. As result of this, the Federal navy, at the end of the
+second year of the war, numbered some 390 vessels of all grades,
+carrying a fraction over 3,000 guns. Before the end of the war it had
+increased to near 800 vessels of war of all grades; the number of guns
+had doubled and were infinitely heavier and more effective; and the
+number of tenders, tugs, transports and supply ships would have swelled
+the navy list to over 1,300 vessels.
+
+To meet this formidable preparation, the Confederate Navy Department in
+May, '61, had _one gulf steamer_ in commission; had the fragments of
+the Norfolk Navy Yard; the refuse of the harbor boats of Charleston,
+New Orleans, Savannah and Mobile to select from; and had, besides, the
+neglect of Congress and the jealousy of the other branch of the service.
+
+Spite of all these drawbacks, the rare powers of the navy officers
+forced themselves into notice and use.
+
+Before the close of the war, the only two rolling-mills in the
+Confederacy were in charge of navy officers. They built powder-mills
+and supplied their own demands; and, to a great extent, those of the
+army. They established rope-walks and became the seekers for the
+invaluable stores of niter and coal that both branches of the service
+so much needed. More than this, they made from nothing--and in spite of
+constant losses from exposure to the enemy and incomplete supplies--a
+fleet of iron-clads numbering at one time nine vessels; and a wooden
+navy at the same moment reaching some thirty-five.
+
+But these--scattered over the vast area of water courses, far from
+supporting each other--were unable to cope with the superior strength
+of metal and construction brought against them.
+
+That much-discussed torpedo system, too--regarding the utility of which
+there was such diversity of opinion--had its birth and perfection in
+the navy. It was a service of science and perseverance; frequently of
+exposure to every peril. It required culture, nerve and administrative
+ability; and it was managed in the main with success. Still the results
+were hardly commensurate with the outlay involved; for though James
+river, some of the western streams, and Charleston harbor were
+literally sown with torpedoes, yet only in rare and isolated
+instances--such as the "De Kalb" and "Commodore Jones"--did the results
+equal the expectation. Thousands of tons of valuable powder, much good
+metal and more valuable time at the work-shops were expended on
+torpedoes; and, on the whole, it is very doubtful if the amount
+destroyed was not more than balanced by the amount expended.
+
+Thus, with varying fortunes--but with unceasing endeavor and unfailing
+courage--the navy worked on. That hue and cry against it--which a
+brilliant success would partially paralyze--soon gathered force in its
+intervals of enforced inaction. Just after the triumph of Hampton Roads
+was, perhaps, the brightest hour for the navy in public estimation.
+People then began to waver in their belief that its administration was
+utterly and hopelessly wrong; and to think that its chief had not
+perhaps sinned quite as much as he had been sinned against.
+
+The old adage about giving a bad name, however, was more than illustrated
+in Mr. Mallory's case. He had no doubt been unfortunate; but that he
+really was guilty of one-half the errors and mishaps laid at his door
+was simply impossible. Not taking time--and, perhaps, without the
+requisite knowledge--to compare the vast discrepancy of force between
+the two governments, the masses only saw the rapid increase of the
+Federal navy and felt the serious effects of its efficiency. Then they
+grumbled that the Confederate secretary--with few work-shops, scattered
+navy-yards, little money and less transportation--did not proceed _pari
+passu_ to meet these preparations. Every result of circumstance, every
+accident, every inefficiency of a subordinate was visited upon Mr.
+Mallory's head. Public censure always makes the meat it feeds on; and
+the secretary soon became the target for shafts of pitiable malice, or
+of unreflecting ridicule. When the enemy's gunboats--built at secure
+points and fitted out without stint of cost, labor or material--ascended
+to Nashville, a howl was raised that the Navy Department should have
+had the water defenses ready. True, Congress had appropriated half a
+million for the defenses of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers; but
+the censorious public forgot that the money had been voted too late.
+Even then it was quite notorious, that in the red-tape system of
+requisition and delay that hedged the Treasury--an _appropriation_ and
+the _money_ it named were totally diverse things.
+
+When New Orleans fell, curses loud and deep went up against the Navy
+Department. Doubtless there was some want of energy in pushing the
+iron-clads there; but again in this case the money was voted very late;
+and even Confederate machine-shops and Confederate laborers could not
+be expected to give their material, time and labor entirely for
+nothing. Had Congress made the appropriations as asked, and had the
+money been forthcoming at the Treasury--New Orleans might not have
+fallen as she did.
+
+Later still, when the "Virginia" was blown up on the evacuation of
+Norfolk, a howl of indignation was raised against Secretary, Department
+and all connected with it. A Court of Inquiry was called; and Commodore
+Tatnall himself demanded a court-martial, upon the first court not
+ordering one.
+
+The facts proved were that the ship, with her iron coating and heavy
+armament, drew far too much water to pass the shoal at Harrison's
+Bar--between her and Richmond. With Norfolk in the enemy's hands, the
+hostile fleet pressing her--and with no point whence to draw
+supplies--she could not remain, as the cant went, "the grim sentinel to
+bar all access to the river." It was essential to lighten her, if
+possible; and the effort was made by sacrificing her splendid armament.
+Even then she would not lighten enough by two feet; the enemy pressed
+upon her, now perfectly unarmed; and Tatnall was forced to leave and
+fire her.
+
+People forgot the noble achievements of the ship under naval guidance;
+that, if destroyed by naval men, she was the offspring of naval genius.
+With no discussion of facts, the cry against the navy went on, even
+after that splendid defense of Drewry's Bluff by Farrand, _which
+alone saved_ Richmond!
+
+As a pioneer, the "Virginia" was a great success and fully demonstrated
+the theory of her projector. But there were many points about her open
+to grave objections; and she was, as a whole, far inferior to the
+smaller vessels afterward built upon her model at Richmond. Armed with
+the same gun, there is little doubt but the "Monitor" would have
+proved--from her superior lightness and obedience to her helm--no less
+than from her more compact build--at least her equal. Officers on the
+"Virginia" shared in this belief of her advantages over her terrible
+antagonist.
+
+On the whole, the experience of the war tells of honest endeavor and
+brilliant achievement, under surpassing difficulty, for the Confederate
+navy. That it was composed of gallant, noble-hearted men, none who were
+thrown with them can doubt; that they wrought heart and hand for the
+cause, in whatever strange and novel position, none ever did doubt.
+
+They made mistakes. Who in army, or government, did not?
+
+But from the day they offered their swords; through the unequal contest
+of the Sounds, the victorious one of Hampton Roads; pining for the sea
+in musty offices, or drilling green conscripts in sand batteries; marching
+steadily to the last fight at Appomattox--far out of their element--the
+Confederate sailors flinched not from fire nor fled from duty. Though
+their country grumbled, and detraction and ingratitude often assailed
+them; yet at the bitter ending no man nor woman in the broad South but
+believed they had done their _devoir_--honestly--manfully--well!
+
+Who in all that goodly throng of soldiers, statesmen and critics--did
+more?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE CHINESE-WALL BLOCKADE, ABROAD AND AT HOME.
+
+
+Potent factor in sapping the foundations of Confederate hope and of
+Confederate credit, was the blockade.
+
+First held in contempt; later fruitful mother of errors, as to the
+movements and intentions of European powers; ever the growing
+constrictor--whose coil was slowly, but surely, to crush out life--it
+became each year harder to bear:--at last unbearable!
+
+At first, Mr. Lincoln's proclamation was laughed to scorn at the South.
+The vast extent of South Atlantic and Gulf coast--pierced with
+innumerable safe harbors--seemed to defy any scheme for hermetic
+sealing. The limited Federal navy was powerless to do more than keep
+loose watch over ports of a few large cities; and, if these were even
+effectually closed, it was felt that new ones would open, on every
+hand, inviting the ventures of enterprising sailors.
+
+This reasoning had good basis, at first; and--had the South made prompt
+and efficient use of opportunity and resources at hand, by placing
+credits abroad and running in essential supplies--the result of the
+first year's blockade might largely have nullified its effect, for the
+last three. But there seemed indurated contempt for the safety-bearing
+look ahead; and its very inefficiency, at the outset, of the blockade
+lulled the South into false security.
+
+The preceding pages note the rapid and vast growth of the Union navy;
+but the South misjudged--until error had proved fatal--that enterprise
+and "grit" of Yankee character; that fixed steadiness of purpose which
+forced both, ever, into most resultful effort. And, so gradual were
+appreciable results of this naval growth; so nearly imperceptible was
+the actual closing of southern ports--that the masses of the people
+realized no real evil, until it had long been accomplished fact.
+
+Already record has been made of the urgence on Government of sending
+cotton abroad, and importing arms, munitions and clothing, which
+ordinary foresight declared so needful. But--only when the proper
+moment had long passed--was the then doubtful experiment made.
+
+A twin delusion to the kingship of cotton besotted the leaders as to
+the blockade. Arguing its illegality equal to its inefficiency, they
+were convinced that either could be demonstrated to Europe. And here
+let us glance briefly at the South's suicidal foreign policy; and at
+the feeling of other people regarding it.
+
+Under the Treaty of Paris, no blockade was _de facto_, or to be
+recognized, unless it was demonstrated to be effectual closing of the
+port, or ports, named. Now, in the South, were one or two ships, at
+most, before the largest ports; with an average of one vessel for every
+hundred miles of coast! And so inefficient was the early blockade of
+Charleston, Wilmington and New Orleans, that traders ran in and out,
+actually with greater frequency than before those ports were proclaimed
+closed. Their Government declared--and the southern people believed--that
+such nominal blockade would not be respected by European powers; and
+reliant upon the kingship of cotton inducing early recognition, both
+believed that the ships of England and France--disregarding the impotent
+paper closure--would soon crowd southern wharves and exchange the royal
+fleece for the luxuries, no less than the necessaries, of life.
+
+When the three first commissioners to Europe--Messrs. Yancey, Rost and
+Mann--sailed from New Orleans, on March 31, '61, their mission was
+hailed as harbinger to speedy fruition of these delusive thoughts, to
+which the wish alone was father. Then--though very gradually--began
+belief that they had reckoned too fast; and doubt began to chill
+glowing hopes of immediate recognition from Europe. But there was none,
+as yet, relative to her ultimate action. The successful trial trip of
+the "Nashville," Captain Pegram, C.S.N.--and her warm reception by
+the British press and people--prevented that. And, after every victory
+of the South, her newspapers were filled with praise from the press of
+England. But gradually--as recognition did not come--first wonder, then
+doubt, and finally despair took the place of certainty.
+
+When Mr. Yancey came back, in disgust, and made his plain statement of
+the true state of foreign sentiment, he carried public opinion to his
+side; and--while the Government could then do nothing but persist in
+effort for recognition, now so vital--the people felt that dignity was
+uselessly compromised, while their powerless representatives were kept
+abroad, to knock weakly at the back door of foreign intervention.
+
+Slight reaction came, when Mason and Slidell were captured on the high
+seas, under a foreign flag. Mr. Seward so boldly defied the rampant
+Lion; Congress so promptly voted thanks to Captain Wilkes, for
+violating international law; the Secretary of the Navy--after slyly
+pulling down the blinds--so bravely patted him on the back--that the
+South renewed her hope, in the seeming certainty of war between the two
+countries. But she had calculated justly neither the power of
+retraction in American policy, nor Secretary Seward's vast capacity for
+eating his own words; and the rendition of her commissioners--with
+their perfectly quiet landing upon British soil--was, at last, accepted
+as sure token of how little they would accomplish. And, for over three
+years, those commissioners blundered on in thick darkness--that might
+not be felt; butting their heads against fixed policy at every turn;
+snubbed by subordinates--to whom alone they had access; yet eating,
+unsparingly and with seeming appetite, the bountiful banquet of cold
+shoulder!
+
+It is not supposable that the people of the South realized to the full
+that humiliation, to which their State Department was subjecting them.
+Occasionally Mr. Mason, seeing a gleam of something which might some
+day be light, would send hopeful despatches; or before the hopeful eyes
+of Mr. Slidell, would rise roseate clouds of promise, light with
+bubbles of aid--intervention--recognition! Strangely enough, these
+would never burst until just after their description; and the secretary
+fostered the widest latitude in press-rumors thereanent, but deemed it
+politic to forget contradiction, when--as was invariably the case--the
+next blockade-runner brought flat denial of all that its precedent had
+carried.
+
+Still, constant promises with no fulfillment, added to limited private
+correspondence with foreign capitals, begat mistrust in elusive
+theories, which was rudely changed to simple certainty.
+
+Edwin DeLeon had been sent by Mr. Davis on a special mission to London
+and Paris, after Mr. Yancey's return; his action to be independent of
+the regularly established futility. In August, 1863, full despatches
+from him, to the southern President and State Department, were captured
+and published in the New York papers. These came through the lines and
+gave the southern people the full and clear expose of the foreign
+question, as it had long been fully and clearly known to their
+government.
+
+This publication intensified what had been vague opposition to further
+retention abroad of the commissioners. The people felt that their
+national honor was compromised; and, moreover, they now realized that
+Europe had--and would have--but one policy regarding the Confederacy.
+
+Diplomatically regarded, the position of the South was actually
+unprecedented. Europe felt the delicacy--and equally the danger--of
+interference in a family quarrel, which neither her theories nor her
+experience had taught her to comprehend. Naturally jealous of the
+growing power of the American Union, Europe may, moreover, have heard
+dictates of the policy of letting it exhaust itself, in this internal
+feud; of waiting until both sides--weakened, wearied and worn
+out--should draw off from the struggle and make intervention more
+nominal than needful. This view of "strict neutrality"--openly vaunted
+only to be practically violated--takes color from the fact of her
+permitting each side to hammer away at the other for four years,
+without one word even of protest!
+
+Southern prejudice ever inclined more favorably toward France than
+England; the scale tilting, perhaps, by weight of Franco-Latin
+influence among the people, perhaps by belief in the suggested theories
+of the third Napoleon. Therefore, intimations of French recognition
+were always more welcomed than false rumors about English aid.
+
+In the North also prevailed an idea that France might intervene--or
+even recognize the Confederacy--before colder England; but that did not
+cause impartial Jonathan to exhibit less bitter, or unreasoning, hatred
+of John Bull. Yet, as a practical fact, the alleged neutrality of the
+latter was far more operative against the South than the North.
+For--omitting early recognition of a blockade, invalid under the Treaty
+of Paris--England denied _both_ belligerent navies the right to
+refit--or bring in prizes--at her ports. Now, as the United States had
+open ports and needed no such grace, while the South having no commerce
+thus afforded no prizes--every point of this decision was against her.
+
+Equally favoring the North was the winking at recruiting; for, if men
+were not actually enlisted on British soil and under that flag,
+thousands of "emigrants"--males only; with expenses and bounty paid by
+United States recruiting agents--were poured out of British territory
+each month.
+
+When France sent her circular to England and Russia, suggesting that
+the time had come for mediation, the former summarily rejected the
+proposition. Besides, England's treatment of the southern commissioners
+was coldly neglectful; and--from the beginning to the end of the
+Confederacy, the sole aid she received from England was personal
+sympathy in isolated instances. But British contractors and traders had
+tacit governmental permission to build ships for the rebels, or to sell
+them arms and supplies, at their own risks. And, spite of these
+well-known facts, northern buncombe never tired of assailing "the rebel
+sympathies" of England!
+
+With somewhat of race sympathy between the two peoples, the French
+emperor's movements to feel the pulse of Europe, from time to time, on
+the question of mediation, kept up the popular delusion at the South.
+This was shared, to a certain extent, even by her government; and Mr.
+Slidell's highly-colored despatches would refan the embers of hope into
+a glow. But while Napoleon, the Little, may have had the subtlest head
+in Europe, he doubtless had the hardest; and the feeble handling by the
+southern commissioner, of that edged-tool, diplomacy, could have
+aroused only amusement in those subordinate officials, whom alone he
+reached.
+
+The real policy of France was doubtless, from the beginning, as fixed
+as was that of England; and though she may have hesitated, for a time,
+at the tempting bait offered--monopoly of southern cotton and
+tobacco--the reasons coercing that policy were too strong to let her
+swallow it at last.
+
+For the rest, Russia had always openly sympathized with the North; and
+other European nations had very vague notions of the merits of the
+struggle; less interest in its termination; and least of all, sympathy
+with what to them was mere rebellion.
+
+And this true condition of foreign affairs, the Confederate State
+Department did know, in great part; should have known in detail; and
+owed it to the people to explain and promulgate. But for some occult
+reason, Mr. Benjamin refused to view the European landscape, except
+through the Claude Lorrain glass which Mr. Slidell persistently held up
+before him. The expose of Mr. Yancey, the few sturdy truths Mr. Mason
+later told; and the detailed resume sent by Mr. DeLeon and printed in
+the North--all these were ignored; and the wishes of the whole people
+were disregarded, that the line begun upon, should not be deviated
+from. There may have been something deeply underlying this policy; for
+Secretary Benjamin was clear-sighted, shrewd and well-informed. But
+what that something was has never been divulged; and the
+people--believing the Secretary too able to be deluded by his
+subordinate--revolted.
+
+The foreign policy grew more and more into popular disfavor; the press
+condemned it, in no stinted terms; it permeated the other branches of
+the government and, finally, reacted upon the armies in the field. For
+the growing dislike of his most trusted adviser began to affect Mr.
+Davis; his ready assumption of all responsibility at the beginning
+having taught the people to look direct to him for all of good, or of
+evil, alike.
+
+As disaster followed disaster to southern arms; as one fair city after
+another fell into the lap of the enemy; as the blockade drew its coil
+tighter and tighter about the vitals of the Confederacy--the cry of the
+people was raised to their chief; demanding the cause of it all. The
+first warm impulses of patriotic and inflammable masses had pedestaled
+him as a demigod. The revulsion was gradual; but, with the third year
+of unrelieved blockade, it became complete. And this was due, in part,
+to that proclivity of masses to measure men by results, rather than by
+their means for accomplishment; it was due in greater part, perhaps, to
+the President's unyielding refusal to sacrifice either his convictions,
+or his favorites, to popular clamor, however re-enforced by argument,
+or reason.
+
+Mr. Davis certainly seemed to rely more upon Mr. Benjamin than any
+member of his Cabinet; and the public laid at that now unpopular
+official's door all errors of policy--domestic as well as foreign.
+Popular wrath ever finds a scape-goat; but in the very darkest hour Mr.
+Benjamin remained placid and smiling, his brow unclouded and his sleek,
+pleasant manner deprecating the rumbling of the storm he had raised, by
+his accomplishments and sophistries. When his removal was clamorously
+demanded by popular voice, his chief closed his ears and moved on
+unheeding--grave--defiant!
+
+Calm retrospect shows that the Confederacy's commissioners were, from
+first to last, only played with by the skilled sophists of Europe. And,
+ere the end came, that absolute conviction penetrated the blockade;
+convincing the South that her policy would remain one of strict
+non-intervention.
+
+After each marked southern success, would come some revival of
+recognition rumors; but these were ever coupled, now, with an important
+"if!" If New Orleans had not fallen; if we had won Antietam; if
+Gettysburg had been a victory--then we _might_ have been welcomed
+into the family of nations. But over the mass of thinkers settled the
+dark conviction that Europe saw her best interest, in standing by to
+watch the sections rend and tear each other to the utmost. Every fiber
+either lost was so much subtraction from that balance of power,
+threatening to pass across the Atlantic. The greater the straits to
+which we reduce each other, said the South, the better will it please
+Europe; and the only faith in her at last, was that she hoped to see
+the breach permanent and irreconcilable, and with it all hopes of rival
+power die!
+
+If the theory be correct, that it was the intent of the Great Powers to
+foster the chance of two rival governments on this continent, it seems
+short-sighted in one regard. For--had they really recognized the dire
+extremity, to which the South was at last brought, they should either
+have furnished her means, directly or indirectly, to prolong the
+strife; or should have intervened and established a broken and
+shattered duality, in place of the stable and recemented Union.
+
+Nor can thinkers, on either side, cavil at Europe's policy during that
+war; calculating, selfish and cruel as it may seem to the
+sentimentalist. If corporations really have no bowels, governments can
+not be looked to for nerves. Interest is the life blood of their
+systems; and interest was doubtless best subserved by the course of the
+Great Powers. For the rumors of destitution and of disaffection in
+France and England--caused by the blockade-begotten "cotton
+famine"--that crept through the Chinese wall, were absurdly magnified,
+both as to their proportions and their results. And the sequel proved
+that it was far cheaper for either nation to feed a few thousand idle
+operatives--or to quell a few incipient bread riots--than to unsettle a
+fixed policy, and that at the risk of a costly foreign war.
+
+There was bitter disappointment in the South, immediately succeeding
+dissipation of these rosy, but nebulous, hopes in the kingship of
+cotton. Then reaction came--strong, general and fruitful. Sturdy
+"Johnny Reb" yearned for British rifles, shoes, blankets and bacon; but
+he wanted them most of all, to _win_ his own independence and to force
+its recognition!
+
+There are optimists everywhere; and even the dark days of Dixie proved
+no exception to the rule. It was not unusual to hear prate of the
+vast benefits derived from the blockade; of the energy, resource and
+production, expressed under its cruel constriction! Such optimists--equally
+at fault as were their pessimistic opponents--pointed proudly to the
+powder-mills, blast-furnaces, foundries and rolling-mills, springing
+up on every hand. They saw the great truth that the internal resources
+of the South developed with amazing rapidity; that arms were manufactured
+and supplies of vital need created, as it were out of nothing; but they
+missed the true reason for that abnormal development, which was the dire
+stress from isolation. They rejoiced to very elation at a popular effort,
+spontaneous--unanimous--supreme! But they realized little that it was
+exhaustive as well.
+
+Could these life-needs the South was compelled to create within, have
+been procured from without, they had not alone been far less costly in
+time, labor and money--but the many hands called from work equally as
+vital had not then been diverted from it. The South was self-supporting,
+as the hibernator that crawls into a stump to subsist upon its own fat.
+But that stump is not sealed up, and Bruin--who goes to bed in autumn,
+sleek and round, to come out a skeleton at springtime--quickly
+reproduces lost tissue. With the South, material once consumed was gone
+forever; and the drain upon her people--material--mental--moral--was
+permanent and fatal.
+
+One reason why the result of the blockade--after it became actually
+effective--was not earlier realized generally at the South, was that
+private speculation promptly utilized opportunities, which the
+Government had neglected. What appeared huge overstock of clothing and
+other prime necessities had been "run in," while there was yet time;
+and before they had advanced in price, under quick depreciation of
+paper money. Then profits doubled so rapidly that--spite of their
+enhanced risk from more effective blockade--private ventures, and even
+great companies formed for the purpose, made "blockade-breaking" the
+royal road to riches. Almost every conceivable article of merchandise
+came to southern ports; often in quantities apparently sufficient to
+glut the market--almost always of inferior quality and manufactured
+specially for the great, but cheap, trade now sprung up.
+
+Earlier ventures were content with profit of one, or two hundred per
+cent.; calculating thus for a ship and cargo, occasionally captured.
+But as such risk increased and Confederate money depreciated,
+percentage on blockade ventures ran up in compound ratio; and it became
+no unusual thing for a successful investment to realize from fifteen
+hundred to two thousand per cent. on its first cost.
+
+Still, even this profit as against the average of loss--perhaps two
+cargoes out of five--together with the uncertain value of paper money,
+left the trade hazardous. Only great capital, ready to renew promptly
+every loss, could supply the demand--heretofore shown to have grown
+morbid, under lost faith in governmental credit. Hence sprung the great
+blockade-breaking corporations, like the Bee Company, Collie & Co., or
+Fraser, Trenholm & Co. With capital and credit unlimited; with branches
+at every point of purchase, reshipment and entry; with constantly
+growing orders from the departments--these giant concerns could control
+the market and make their own terms.
+
+Their growing power soon became quasi dictation to Government itself;
+the national power was filtered through these alien arteries; and the
+South became the victim--its Treasury the mere catspaw--of the selfsame
+system, which clear sight and medium ability could so easily have
+averted from the beginning!
+
+Even when pressure for supplies was most dire and Government had become
+almost wholly dependent for them upon the monopoly octopus--it would
+not move. Deaf to urgent appeals of its trusted officers, to establish
+a system of light, swift blockade-runners, the Department admitted
+their practical necessity, by entering into a limited partnership with
+a blockade-breaking firm. And, it must go without saying that the
+bargain driven was like the boy's: "You and I will each take half and
+the rest we'll give to Anne!"
+
+As noted, in considering finance, the mania for exchanging paper money
+for something that could be enjoyed, grew apace as the war progressed.
+Fancy articles for dress, table luxuries and frippery of all sorts came
+now into great demand. Their importation increased to such bulk as, at
+last, to exclude the more necessary parts of most cargoes; and not less
+to threaten complete demoralization of such minority as made any money.
+It may seem a grim joke;--the starving, tattered--moribund Confederacy
+passing sumptuary laws, as had Venice in her recklessness of riches!
+But, in 1864, a law was necessitated against importation of all
+articles, not of utility; forbidden luxuries being named per schedule.
+That its constant evasion--if not its open defiance--was very simple,
+may be understood; for the blockade firms had now become a power
+coequal with Government, and exceptions were listed, sufficient to
+become the rule.
+
+And so the leeches waxed fat and flourished on the very life-blood of
+the cause, that represented to them--opportunity! And, whatever has
+been said of speculators at Richmond, they were far less culpable than
+these, their chiefs; for, without the arch-priests of greed,
+speculation would have died from inanition. The speculators were most
+hungry kites; but their maws were crammed by the great vultures that
+sat at the coast, blinking ever out over the sea for fresh gains; with
+never a backward glance at the gaunt, grim legions behind
+them--naked--worn--famished, but unconquered still!
+
+Transportation needs have been noted, also. No department was worse
+neglected and mismanaged than that. The existence of the Virginia army
+wholly depended on a single line, close to the coast and easily tapped.
+Nor did Government's seizure of its control, in any manner remedy the
+evil. Often and again, the troops around Richmond were without
+beef--once for twelve days at a time; they were often without flour,
+molasses or salt, living for days upon cornmeal alone! and the
+ever-ready excuse was want of transportation!
+
+Thousands of bushels of grain would ferment and rot at one station;
+hundreds of barrels of meat stacked at another, while the army starved
+because of "no transportation!" But who recalls the arrival of a
+blockader at Charleston, Savannah, or Wilmington, when its ventures
+were not exposed at the auctions of Richmond, in time unreasonably
+short!
+
+These facts are not recalled in carping spirit; nor to pronounce
+judgment just where the blame for gross mismanagement, or favoritism
+should lie. They are recorded because they are historic truth; because
+the people, whom they oppressed and ruined--saw, felt and angrily
+proclaimed them so; because the blockade mismanagement was
+twin-destroyer with the finance, of the southern cause.
+
+The once fair cities of Charleston, Savannah and Wilmington suffered
+most from the blockade, both in destruction of property and
+demoralization of their populations. The first--as "hot-bed of treason"
+and equally from strategic importance--was early a point of Federal
+desire; but the fleet had been compelled to stand idly by and witness
+the bloodless reduction of Sumter. Later--when strengthened armaments
+threatened constant attack--Lee and Beauregard had used every resource
+to strengthen defenses of the still open port. What success they had,
+is told by the tedious and persistent bombardment--perhaps unexampled
+in the history of gunnery; surely so in devices to injure non-combatant
+inhabitants.
+
+On the 30th January, '63, the two slow, clumsy and badly-built rams,
+under Captain Ingraham--of Martin Koszta fame--attacked the blockading
+squadron and drove the Union flag completely from the harbor; but
+re-enforced by iron-clads, it returned on the 7th of April. Again,
+after a fierce battle with the fort, the Federal fleet drew off,
+leaving the "Keokuk" monitor sunk; only to concentrate troops and build
+heavy batteries, for persistent attempt to reduce the devoted city. The
+history of that stubborn siege and defense, more stubborn still; of the
+woman-shelling "swamp-angel" and the "Greek-fire;" of the deeds of
+prowess that gleamed from the crumbling walls of Charleston--all this
+is too familiar for repetition. Yet, ever and again--through wooden
+mesh of the blockade-net and its iron links, alike--slipped a fleet,
+arrowy little blockader into port. And with what result has just been
+seen!
+
+Wilmington--from long and shoal approach to her proper port--was more
+difficult still to seal up effectually. There--long after every other
+port was closed--the desperate, but wary, sea-pigeon would evade the
+big and surly watcher on the coast. Light draught, narrow, low in the
+water, swift and painted black--these little steamers were commanded by
+men who knew every inch of coast; who knew equally that on them
+depended life and death--or more. With banked fires and scarce-turning
+wheels, they would drop down the Cape Fear, at night, to within a
+hundred yards of the looming blockade giant. Then, putting on all
+steam, they would rush by him, trusting to speed and surprise to elude
+pursuit and distract his aim--and ho! for the open sea.
+
+This was a service of keen excitement and constant danger; demanding
+clear heads and iron nerves. Both were forthcoming, especially from
+navy volunteers; and many were "the hair-breadth 'scapes" that made the
+names of Maffit, Wilkinson and their confreres, household words among
+the rough sea-dogs of Wilmington.
+
+Savannah suffered least of the fair Atlantic sisterhood, from the
+blockade. The early capture of her river forts blocked access to her
+wharves, almost effectually; though occasional steamers still slipped
+up to them. Yet, she was in such easy reach of her more open neighbors,
+as to reap part of the bad fruits with which they were so over-stocked.
+
+These proud southern cities had ever been famed throughout the land,
+for purity, high tone and unyielding pride. At the first bugle-blast,
+their men had sprung to arms with one accord; and the best blood of
+Georgia and the Carolinas was poured out from Munson's Hill to
+Chickamauga. Their devoted women pinched themselves and stripped their
+homes, to aid the cause so sacred to them; and on the burning
+sand-hills of Charleston harbor, grandsire and grandson wrought side by
+side under blistering sun and galling fire alike!
+
+How bitter, then, for those devoted and mourning cities to see their
+sacred places made mere marts; their cherished fame jeopardied by refuse
+stay-at-homes, or transient aliens; while vile speculation--ineffably
+greedy, when not boldly dishonest--smirched them with lowest vices of the
+lust for gain! Shot-riddled Charleston--exposed and devastated--invited
+nothing beyond the sterner business of money-getting. There, was
+offered neither the leisure nor safety for that growth of luxury and
+riotous living, which at one time possessed Wilmington.
+
+Into that blockade mart would enter four ships to one at any other
+port; speculators of all grades and greediness flocked to meet them;
+and money was poured into the once-quiet town by the million. And, with
+tastes restricted elsewhere, these alien crowds reveled in foreign
+delicacies, edibles and liquors, of which every cargo was largely made
+up. The lowest attache of a blockade-runner became a man of mark and
+lived in luxury; the people caught the infection and--where they could
+not follow--envied the fearful example set by the establishments of the
+"merchant princes."
+
+Was it strange that the people of leaguered Richmond--that the worn
+hero starving in the trench at Petersburg--came to execrate those
+vampires fattening on their life-blood; came to regard the very name of
+blockade-runner as a stench and the government that leagued with it as
+a reproach? For strangely-colored exaggerations of luxury and license
+were brought away by visitors near the centers of the only commerce
+left. Well might the soul of the soldier--frying his scant ration of
+moldy bacon and grieving over still more scant supply at his distant
+home--wax wroth over stories of Southdown mutton, brought in ice from
+England; of dinners where the _pates_ of Strasbourg and the fruits of
+the East were washed down with rare Champagne.
+
+Bitter, indeed, it seemed, that--while he crawled, footsore and faint,
+to slake his thirst from the roadside pool--while the dear ones at home
+kept in shivering life with cornbread--degenerate southerners and
+foreign leeches reveled in luxury untold, from the very gain that
+caused such privation!
+
+This misuse of that blockade-running--which strongly handled had proved
+such potent agency for good--bred infinite discontent in army and in
+people alike. That misdirection--and its twin, mismanagement of
+finance--aided to strangle prematurely the young giant they might have
+nourished into strength;--
+
+    "And the spirit of murder worked in the very means of life!"
+
+But the Chinese-wall blockade was tripartite; not confined to closing
+of the ocean ports. Almost as damaging, in another regard, were the
+occupation of New Orleans, and the final stoppage of communication with
+the trans-Mississippi by the capture of Vicksburg.
+
+The Heroic City had long been sole point of contact with the vast
+productive tracts, beyond the great river. The story were twice-told of
+a resistance--unequaled even by that at Charleston and beginning with
+first Union access to the river, by way of New Orleans. But, in May,
+'62, the combined fleets of Porter and Farragut from the South, and
+Davis from the North, rained shot and shell into the coveted town for
+six terrible weeks. Failing reduction, they withdrew on June 24th;
+leaving her banners inscribed--_Vicksburg victrix!_
+
+In May of the next year, another concentration was made on the "key of
+the Mississippi;" General Grant marching his army one hundred and fifty
+miles from its base, to get in rear of Vicksburg and cut off its
+relief. The very audacity of this plan may blind the careless thinker
+to its bad generalship; especially in view of the success that at last
+crowned its projector's hammer-and-tongs style of tactics. His reckless
+and ill-handled assaults upon the strong works at Vicksburg--so freely
+criticised on his own side, by army and by press--were but preface of a
+volume, so bloodily written to the end before Petersburg.
+
+Under ordinary combinations, Johnston had found it easy to crush Grant
+and prevent even his escape to the distant base behind him. But,
+unhappily, Government would not re-enforce Johnston--even to the very
+limited extent it might; and Mr. Davis promoted Pemberton to a
+lieutenant-generalcy and sent him to Vicksburg. But this is no place to
+discuss General Pemberton's abilities--his alleged disobedience of
+orders--the disasters of Baker's creek and Big Black; or his shutting
+up in Vicksburg, hopeless of relief from Johnston. Suffice it, the
+dismal echo of falling Vicksburg supplemented the gloom after
+Gettysburg; and the swift-following loss of Port Hudson completed the
+blockade of the Mississippi; and made the trans-river territory a
+foreign land!
+
+The coast of Maine met the waters of the Ohio, at the mouth of the
+Mississippi; and two sides of the blockade triangle were completed,
+almost impervious even to rebel ingenuity and audacity. It needed but
+careful guard over the third side--the inland border from river to
+coast--to seal up the South hermetically, and perfect her isolation.
+
+That perfection had long been attempted. Fleets of gunboats ploughed
+the Potomac and all inland water-approaches to the southern frontier. A
+shrewd detective system, ramifying from Washington, penetrated the
+"disaffected" counties of Maryland; spying equally upon shore and
+household. The borders of Tennessee and Kentucky were closely picketed;
+and no means of cunning, or perseverance, were omitted to prevent the
+passage of anything living, or useful, into the South. But none of this
+availed against the untiring pluck and audacity of the inland
+blockade-breakers. Daily the lines were forced, spies evaded, and bold
+"Johnny Reb" passed back and forth, in almost guaranteed security.
+
+Such ventures brought small supplies of much-needed medicines, surgical
+instruments and necessaries for the sick. They brought northern
+newspapers--and often despatches and cipher letters of immense value;
+and they ever had tidings from home that made the heart of exiled
+Marylander, or border statesman sing for joy, even amid the
+night-watches of a winter camp.
+
+Gradually this system of "running the bloc." systematized and received
+governmental sanction. Regular corps of spies, letter-carriers and
+small purchasing agents were organized and recognized by army
+commanders. Naturally, these also made hay while the sun shone; coming
+back never--whatever their mission--with empty hands. Shoes, cloth,
+even arms--manufactured under the very noses of northern detectives
+and, possibly, with their connivance--found ever-ready sale. The
+runners became men of mark--many of them men of money; for, while this
+branch never demoralized like its big rival on the coast, the service
+of Government was cannily mixed with the service of Mammon.
+
+Late in the war--when all ports were closed to its communication with
+agents abroad, the Richmond Government perfected this spy system, in
+connection with its signal corps. This service gave scope for tact,
+fertility of resource and cool courage; it gave many a brave fellow,
+familiar with both borders, relief from camp monotony, in the fresh
+dangers through which he won a glimpse of home again; and it gave a
+vast mass of crude, conflicting information, such as must come from
+rumors collected by men in hiding. But its most singular and most
+romantic aspect was the well-known fact, that many women essayed the
+breaking of the border blockade. Almost all of them were successful;
+more than one well nigh invaluable, for the information she brought,
+sewed in her riding-habit, or coiled in her hair. Nor were these coarse
+camp-women, or reckless adventurers. Belle Boyd's name became historic
+as Moll Pitcher; but others are recalled--petted belles in the society
+of Baltimore, Washington and Virginia summer resorts of yore--who rode
+through night and peril alike, to carry tidings of cheer home and bring
+back news that woman may best acquire. New York, Baltimore and
+Washington to-day boast of three beautiful and gifted women, high in
+their social ranks, who could--if they would--recite tales of lonely
+race and perilous adventure, to raise the hair of the budding beaux
+about them.
+
+But it may be that the real benefits of "running the bloc." were
+counterbalanced by inseparable evils. The enhancement of prices and
+consequent depreciation of currency may not have felt this system
+appreciably; but it tempted immigration of the adventurous and vicious
+classes, while it presented the anomaly of a government trading on its
+enemy's currency to depreciation of its own. For the trade demanded
+greenbacks; and the Confederacy bought these--often the product of
+illicit traffic--from the runners themselves, at from twenty to _one
+thousand_ dollars C.S., for one U.S.!
+
+Such is the brief, and necessarily imperfect, glance at the triple
+blockade, which steadily aided the process of exhaustion and ruin at
+the South. Such were its undeniable effects upon the Government and the
+people. And that these, in part at least, might have been averted by
+bold foresight and prompt action--while the blockade was yet but
+paper--is equally undeniable!
+
+With this, as with most salient features of that
+bitter--gallant--enduring struggle for life; with it, as in most
+mundane retrospects--the saddest memories must ever cluster about the
+"might have been!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+PRESS, LITERATURE AND ART.
+
+
+However much of ability may have been engaged upon it, the press of the
+South--up to the events just preceding the war--had scarcely been that
+great lever which it had elsewhere become. It was rather a local
+machine than a great engine for shaping and manufacturing public
+opinion.
+
+One main cause for this, perhaps, was the decentralization of the
+South. Tracts of country surrounding it looked up only to their chief
+city, and thence drew their information, and even their ideas on the
+topics of the day. But there it ceased. The principal trade of the
+South went directly to the North; and in return were received northern
+manufactures, northern books and northern ideas. Northern newspapers
+came to the South; and except for matters of local information, or
+local policy, a large class of her readers drew their inspiration
+chiefly from journals of New York--catholic in their scope as
+unreliable in their principles.
+
+These papers were far ahead of those of the South--except in very rare
+instances--in their machinery for collecting news and gossip; for
+making up a taking whole; and in the no less important knowledge of
+manipulating their circulation and advertising patronage. The newspaper
+system of the North had been reduced to a science. Its great object was
+_to pay_; and to accomplish this it must force its circulation in
+numbers and in radius, and must become the medium of communicating with
+far distant points. Great competition--application of _il faut bien
+vivre_--drove the drones from the field and only the real workers were
+allowed to live.
+
+In the South the case was entirely different. Even in the large cities,
+newspapers were content with a local circulation; they had a
+little-varying clientele which looked upon them as infallible; and
+their object was to consider and digest ideas, rather than to
+propagate, or manufacture them.
+
+The deep and universal interest in questions immediately preceding the
+war, somewhat changed in the scope of the southern press. People in all
+sections had intense anxiety to know what others, in different
+sections, felt on vital questions that agitated them; and papers were
+thus forced, as it were, into becoming the medium for interchange of
+sentiment.
+
+An examination of the leading journals of the South at this period
+will show that--whatever their mismanagement and want of business
+success--there was no lack of ability in their editorial columns. Such
+organs as the New Orleans _Delta_, Mobile _Advertiser_, Charleston
+_Mercury_ and Richmond _Examiner_ and _Whig_ might have taken rank
+alongside of the best-edited papers of the country. Their literary
+ability was, perhaps, greater than that of the North; their discussions
+of the questions of the hour were clear, strong and scholarly, and
+possessed, besides, the invaluable quality of honest conviction. Unlike
+the press of the North, the southern journals were not hampered by any
+business interests; they were unbiased, unbought and free to say what
+they thought and felt. And say it they did, in the boldest and plainest
+of language.
+
+Nowhere on the globe was the freedom of the press more thoroughly
+vindicated than in the Southern States of America. And during the whole
+course of the war, criticisms of men and measures were constant and
+outspoken. So much so, indeed, that in many instances the operations of
+the Government were embarrassed, or the action of a department
+commander seriously hampered, by hostile criticism in a paper. In naval
+operations, and the workings of the Conscript Law, especially was this
+freedom felt to be injurious; and though it sprang from the perfectly
+pure motive of doing the best for the cause--though the smallest
+southern journal, printed on straw paper and with worn-out type, was
+above purchase, or hush money--still it might have been better at times
+had gag-law been applied.
+
+For, with a large proportion of the population of different sections
+gathered in huge army communities, their different newspapers reached
+the camps and were eagerly devoured. Violent and hostile criticisms of
+Government--even expositions of glaring abuses--were worse than useless
+unless they could be remedied; and when these came to be the text of
+camp-talk, they naturally made the soldiers think somewhat as they did.
+
+Now, the greatest difficulty with that variously-constituted army, was
+to make its individuals the perfect machines--unthinking, unreasoning,
+only obeying--to which the perfect soldier must be reduced. "Johnny
+Reb" _would_ think; and not infrequently, he would talk. The newspapers
+gave him aid and comfort in both breaches of discipline; and in some
+instances, their influence against the conscription and impressments
+was seriously felt in the interior. Still these hostilities had their
+origin in honest conviction; and abuses were held up to the light, that
+the Government might be made to see and correct them.
+
+The newspapers but reflected the ideas of some of the clearest thinkers
+in the land; and they recorded the real and true history of public
+opinion during the war. In their columns is to be found the only really
+correct and indicative "map of busy life, its fluctuations and its vast
+concerns" in the South, during her days of darkness and of trial.
+
+These papers held their own bravely for a time, and fought hard against
+scarcity of labor, material and patronage--against the depreciation of
+currency and their innumerable other difficulties. Little by little
+their numbers decreased; then only the principal dailies of the cities
+were left, and these began to print upon straw paper, wall papering--on
+any material that could be procured. Cramped in means, curtailed in
+size, and dingy in appearance, their publishers still struggled bravely
+on for the freedom of the press and the freedom of the South.
+
+Periodical literature--as the vast flood of illustrated and
+unillustrated monthlies and weeklies that swept over the North was
+misnamed--was unknown in the South. She had but few weeklies; and these
+were sturdy and heavy country papers--relating more to farming than to
+national matters. Else they were the weekly editions of the city
+papers, intended for country consumption. Few monthly magazines--save
+educational, religious, or statistical ventures, intended for certain
+limited classes, were ever born in the South; and most of those few
+lived weakly and not long.
+
+De Bow's _Review_, the _Southern Quarterly_, and the _Literary
+Messenger_, were the most noteworthy exceptions. The business interests
+of the larger towns supported the first--which, indeed, drew part of
+its patronage from the North. Neither its great ability nor the taste
+of its clientele availed to sustain the second; and the _Messenger_--long
+the chosen medium of southern writers of all ages, sexes and
+conditions--dragged on a wearisome existence, with one foot in the
+grave for many years, only to perish miserably of starvation during the
+war.
+
+But any regular and systematized periodical literature the South never
+had. The principal reason doubtless is, that she had not the numerous
+class of readers for amusement, who demand such food in the North; and
+of the not insignificant class who did indulge in it, nine-tenths--for
+one reason, or another, preferred northern periodicals. This is not
+altogether unnatural, when we reflect that these latter were generally
+better managed and superior in interest--if not in tone--to anything
+the South had yet attempted. They were gotten up with all the
+appliances of mechanical perfection; were managed with business tact,
+and forced and puffed into such circulation as made the heavy outlay
+for first-class writers in the end remunerative.
+
+On the contrary, every magazine attempted in the South up to that time
+had been born with the seeds of dissolution already in it. _Voluntary
+contributions_--fatal poison to any literary enterprise--had been
+their universal basis. There was ever a crowd of men and women among
+southern populations, who would write anywhere and anything for the
+sake of seeing themselves in print. And while there were many able and
+accomplished writers available, they were driven off by these
+Free-Companions of the quill--preferring not to write in such company;
+or, if forced to do it, to send their often anonymous contributions to
+northern journals. These two reasons--especially the last--availed to
+kill the few literary ventures attempted by more enterprising southern
+publishers. The first of these two in a great measure influenced the
+scarcity of book-producers, among a people who had really very few
+readers among them; and even had the number of these been larger, it
+seems essential to the increase of authors that there should be the
+constant friction of contact in floating literature.
+
+Good magazines are the nurseries and forcing houses for authors; and
+almost every name of prominence in modern literature may be traced back
+along its course, as that of magazinist, or reviewer.
+
+The South--whether these reasons for it be just or not, the fact is
+patent--had had but few writers of prominence; and in fiction
+especially the names that were known could be numbered on one's
+fingers. W. Gilmore Simms was at once the father of southern literature
+and its most prolific exemplar. His numerous novels have been very
+generally read; and, if not placing him in the highest ranks of writers
+of fiction, at least vindicate the claims of his section to force and
+originality. He had been followed up the thorny path by many who
+stopped half-way, turned back, or sunk forgotten even before reaching
+that far.
+
+Few, indeed, of their works ever went beyond their own boundaries; and
+those few rarely sent back a record. Exceptions there were, however,
+who pressed Mr. Simms hard for his position on the topmost peak; and
+most of these adventurous climbers were of the softer sex.
+
+John Esten Cooke had written a very clever novel of the olden society,
+called "Virginia Comedians." It had promised a brilliant future, when
+his style and method should both ripen; a promise that had not, so far,
+been kept by two or three succeeding ventures launched on these
+doubtful waters. Hon. Jere Clemens, of Alabama, had commenced a series
+of strong, if somewhat convulsive, stories of western character.
+"Mustang Gray" and "Bernard Lile," scenting strongly of camp-fire and
+pine-top, yet had many advantages over the majority of successful
+novels, then engineered by northern publishers. Marion Harland, as her
+_nom de plume_ went, was, however, the most popular of southern writers.
+Her stories of Virginia home-life had little pretension to the higher
+flights of romance; but they were pure, graphic and not unnatural
+scenes from every-day life. They introduced us to persons we knew, or
+might have known; and the people read them generally and liked them.
+Mrs. Ritchie (Anna Cora Mowatt) was also prolific of novels, extracted
+principally from her fund of stage experience. Piquant and bright, with
+a dash of humor and more than a dash of sentiment, Mrs. Ritchie's books
+had many admirers and more friends. The South-west, too, had given us
+the "Household of Bouverie" and "Beulah;" and it was reserved for Miss
+Augusta Evans, author of the latter, to furnish the _only_ novel--almost
+the only book--published within the South during continuance of the
+war. The only others I can now recall--emanating from southern pens and
+entirely made in the South--were Mrs. A. de V. Chaudron's translation
+of Muelbach's "Joseph II.," and Dr. Wm. Sheppardson's collection of "War
+Poetry of the South."
+
+This is not an imposing array of prose writers, and it may be
+incomplete; but it is very certain that there are not many omissions.
+
+In poetry, the warmer clime of the South would naturally have been
+expected to excel; but, while the list of rhymsters was longer than
+Leporello's, the _poets_ hardly exceeded in number the writers of
+prose. Thompson, Meek, Simms, Hayne, Timrod and McCord were the few
+names that had gone over the border. Up to that time, however, the
+South had never produced any great poem, that was to stand _aere
+perennius_. But that there was a vast amount of latent poetry in our
+people was first developed by the terrible friction of war.
+
+In the dead-winter watches of the camp, in the stricken homes of the
+widow and the childless, and in the very prison pens, where they were
+crushed under outrage and contumely--the souls of the southrons rose in
+song.
+
+The varied and stirring acts of that terrible drama--its trying
+suspense and harrowing shocks--its constant strain and privations must
+have graven deep upon southern hearts a picture of that time; and there
+it will stand forever, distinct--indelible--etched by the mordant of
+sorrow!
+
+Where does history show more stirring motives for poetry? Every rood of
+earth, moistened and hallowed with sacred blood, sings to-day a noble
+dirge, wordless, but how eloquent! No whitewashed ward in yonder
+hospital, but has written in letters of life its epic of heroism, of
+devotion, and of triumphant sacrifice!
+
+Every breeze that swept from those ravished homes, whence peace and
+purity had fled before the sword, the torch and that far
+blacker--nameless horror!--each breeze bore upon its wing a pleading
+prayer for peace, mingled and drowned in the hoarse notes of a stirring
+cry to arms!
+
+But not only did our people feel all this. They spoke it with universal
+voice--in glowing, burning words that will live so long as strength and
+tenderness and truth shall hold their own in literature.
+
+For reasons thus roughly sketched, no great and connected effort had
+been made at the South before the war. Though there had been sudden and
+fitful flashes of rare warmth and promise, they had died before their
+fire was communicated. That the fire was there, latent and still, they
+bore witness; but it needed the rough and cruel friction of the war to
+bring it to the surface.
+
+What the southron felt he spoke; and out of the bitterness of his trial
+the poetry of the South was born. It leaped at one bound from the
+overcharged brain of our people--full statured in its stern defiance
+mailed in the triple panoply of truth.
+
+There was endless poetry written in the North on the war; and much of
+it came from the pens of men as eminent as Longfellow, Bryant, Whittier
+and Holmes. But they wrote far away from the scenes they spoke
+of--comfortably housed and perfectly secure. The men of the North wrote
+with their pens, while the men of the South wrote with their hearts!
+
+A singular commentary upon this has been given us by Mr. Richard Grant
+White--himself a member of the committee. In April, 1861, a committee
+of thirteen New Yorkers--comprising such names as Julian Verplanck,
+Moses Grinnell, John A. Dix and Geo. Wm. Curtis--offered a reward of
+five hundred dollars for a National Hymn! What hope, feeling,
+patriotism and love of the cause had failed to produce--for the lineal
+descendants of the "Star Spangled Banner" were all in the South,
+fighting under the bars instead of the stripes--was to be drawn out by
+the application of a greenback poultice! The committee advertised
+generally for five hundred dollars' worth of pure patriotism, to be
+ground out "in not less than sixteen lines, nor more than forty."
+
+Even with this highest incentive, Mr. White tells us that dozens of
+barrelfuls of manuscript were rejected; and not one patriot was found
+whose principles--as expressed in his poetry--were worth that much
+money! Were it not the least bit saddening, the contemplation of this
+attempt to buy up fervid sentiment would be inexpressibly funny.
+
+Memory must bring up, in contrast, that night of 1792 in Strasbourg,
+when the gray dawn, struggling with the night, fell upon the pale face
+and burning eyes of Rouget de Lisle--as with trembling hand he wrote
+the last words of the _Marseillaise_. The mind must revert, in
+contrast, to those ravished hearths and stricken homes and decimated
+camps, where the South wrought and suffered and sang--sang words that
+rose from men's hearts, when the ore of genius fused and sparkled in
+the hot blast of their fervid patriotism!
+
+Every poem of the South is a National Hymn!--bought not with dollars,
+but with five hundred wrongs and ten times five hundred precious lives!
+
+To one who has not studied the subject, the vast number of southern war
+poems would be most surprising, in view of restricted means for their
+issue. Every magazine, album and newspaper in the South ran over with
+these effusions and swelled their number to an almost countless one.
+Many of them were written for a special time, event, or locality; many
+again were read and forgotten in the engrossing duties of the hour. But
+it was principally from the want of some systematized means of
+distribution that most of them were born to blush unseen.
+
+Before my little collection--"South Songs, from the Lays of Later
+Days"--went to press, over nineteen hundred poems had accumulated on my
+hands! And since that time the number has greatly increased. There were
+battle odes, hymns, calls to arms, paeans and dirges and prayers for
+peace--many of them good, few of them great; and the vast majority,
+alas! wretchedly poor. Any attempted notice of their authors in limits
+like this would be sheer failure; and where many did so well, it were
+invidious to discriminate. The names of John R. Thompson, James
+Randall, Henry Timrod, Paul Hayne, Barron Hope, Margaret Preston, James
+Overall, Harry Lyndon Flash and Frank Ticknor had already become
+household words in the South, where they will live forever.
+
+Wherever his people read anything, the classic finish of his "Latane,"
+the sweet caress of his "Stuart" and the bugle-blast of his "Coercion"
+and "Word with the West," had assured John R. Thompson's fame. The
+liltful refrain of "Maryland, my Maryland" echoed from the Potomac to
+the Gulf; and the clarion-call James R. Randall so nobly used--"There's
+Life in the Old Land Yet!"--warmed every southern heart, by the dead
+ashes on its hearth. Who does not remember "Beechenbrook," that pure
+Vestal in the temple of Mars? Every tear of sympathy that fell upon its
+pages was a jewel above rubies, in the crown of its gentle author.
+
+Paul Hayne had won already the hearts of his own readers; and had
+gained transatlantic meed, in Tennyson's declaration that he was "the
+sonneteer of America!" And the yearning sorrow in all eyes that looked
+upon the fresh mound, above what was mortal of tender Henry Timrod, was
+more eloquent of worth than costly monument, or labored epitaph.
+
+But not only the clang of action and the freedom of stirring scenes
+produced the southern war-poems. Camp Chase and forts Warren and
+Lafayette contributed as glowing strains as any written. Those grim
+bastiles held the bodies of their unconquered inmates; while their
+hearts lived but in the memory of those scenes, in which their fettered
+hands were debarred further portion. Worn down by confinement, hunger
+and the ceaseless pressure of suspense; weakened by sickness and often
+oppressed by vulgar indignity--the spirit of their cause still lingered
+lovingly around them; and its bright gleams warmed and lighted the
+darkest recesses of their cells.
+
+That bugle blast, "Awake and to horse, my brothers!", Teackle Wallis
+sent from the walls of Warren, when he was almost prostrated by
+sickness and mental suffering. Another poem, more mournful but with a
+beautiful thought of hope beyond, comes from that dismal prison-pen,
+Camp Chase. Colonel W. S. Hawkins, a brave Tennesseean, who was held
+there two long years, still kept up heart and ministered to his
+fellow-sufferers day and night. The close of the war alone released
+him, to drag his shattered frame to "his own, fair sunny land," and lay
+it in the soil he loved so well. But he has left a living monument; and
+the tender pathos of "The Hero without a Name"--and the flawless
+poetical gem that closes his "Last of Earth," will be remembered as
+long as the sacrifices of their noble author. The pent walls of other
+military prisons sent forth plaintive records of misery, as well as
+stirring strains of hope unconquered; but the two here named are easily
+first of the rebel-prisoner poets.
+
+Dirges for the great dead became a popular form, in which the spirit of
+southern song poured itself out. I had in my collection no fewer than
+forty-seven monodies and dirges on Stonewall Jackson; some dozens on
+Ashby and a score on Stuart. Some of these were critically good; all of
+them high in sentiment; but Flash's "Jackson"--heretofore quoted, when
+noting that irremediable loss--stands incomparably above the rest.
+Short, vigorous, completely rounded--it breathes that high spirit of
+hope and trust, held by that warrior people; and, not alone the finest
+war dirge of the South, it is excelled by no sixteen lines in any
+language, for power, lilt and tenderness!
+
+Perhaps Thompson's "Dirge for Ashby," Randall's song of triumph over
+dead John Pelham and Mrs. Margaret Preston's "Ashby," may rank
+side-by-side next to the "Jackson." The modest author of the last-named
+did not claim it, until the universal voice of her people called for
+her name; and it is noteworthy that large numbers of war-song writers
+hid from their just meed, behind the sheltering anonymous. And the
+universal characteristic of this dirge-poetry is not its mournful
+tenderness--while nothing could be more touching than that; but its
+strong expression of faith in the efficacy of the sacrifice and in the
+full atonement of the martyrdom!
+
+The battle-breeze bore back to the writers no sound of weak wailing. It
+wafted only the sob of manly grief, tempered by a solemn joyousness;
+and--coming from men of many temperaments, amid wide-differing scenes
+and circumstance--every monody bears impress of the higher inspiration,
+that has its origin far beyond the realm of the narrow house!
+
+Sacred to one and all--in the Dixie of yesterday, in the southern half
+of the cemented Union of to-day--is the memory of that past. Sweet and
+bitter commingled, as it is, we clasp it to our heart of hearts and
+know--that were it bitterer a thousand fold--it is ours still! So I may
+not leave the field of southern song, unnoting its noblest strain--its
+funeral hymn! Father Ryan's "Conquered Banner" is so complete in
+fulfillment of its mission, that we can not spare one word, while yet
+no word is wanting! Every syllable there finds it echo far down in
+every southern heart. Every syllable has added significance, as coming
+from a man of peace;--a priest of that church which ever held forth
+free and gentle hand to aid the cause of struggling freedom!
+
+In hottest flashings of the fight; in toilsome marches of winter; in
+fearful famine of the trenches--the Catholic soldiers of the
+Confederacy ever acted the motto of the Douglas; their deeds ever
+said--"Ready! aye, ready!"
+
+And, in fetid wards of fever hospital; in field-tents, where the busy
+knife shears through quivering flesh; on battle-ground, where shattered
+manhood lies mangled almost past semblance of itself; at hurried
+burial, where gory blanket, or rough board, makes final rest for some
+"Hero without a name;"--there ever, and ever tender and tireless, the
+priest of Rome works on his labor of love and consolation! And the
+gentlest daughter of the eldest church was there as well. All southern
+soldiers were brothers, in her eyes; children of the One Father. And
+that noble band of Sisters of Mercy--to which our every woman belonged;
+giving light and hope to the hospital, life itself to the cause--that
+band knew no confines of ministry--no barriers of faith, which made
+charity aught but one common heritage!
+
+Over the border, too; in struggling Maryland, in leaguered Missouri,
+and far into the North, the Catholic clergy were friends of the
+southern cause. They ceased never openly to defend its justice; quietly
+to aid its sympathizers. They helped the self-exiled soldier to bear
+unaccustomed hardships, on the one side; carried to his lonely mother,
+on the other, tidings of his safety, or his glory, that "caused the
+heart of the widow to sing for joy!"
+
+Fitting, then, it was that a father of that church should chant the
+requiem for the dead cause, he had loved and labored for while living;
+that Father Ryan should bless and bury its conquered banner, when the
+bitter day came that saw it "furled forever."
+
+But is that proud flag--with the glory and the pride wrought into its
+folds, by suffering, honor and endurance unexcelled--really "furled
+forever?" The dust of centuries may sift upon it, but the moth and the
+mold may harm it not. Ages it may lie, furled and unnoted; but in her
+own good time, historic Justice shall yet unfold and throw it to the
+breeze of immortality; pointing to each glorious rent and to each holy
+drop that stains it!
+
+The war-poetry of the South has been dwelt upon, perhaps, at too great
+length. But it was, in real truth, the literature of the South. To sum
+it up may be repeated, after a lapse of twenty-five years--that
+sentence from the preface to my "South Songs," which raised such ire
+among irreconcilables of the southern press:--"In prose of all kinds,
+the South stood still, during the war; perhaps retrograded. But her
+best aspiration, 'lisped in numbers, for the numbers came!'"
+
+Even then her poetry proved that there was life--high, brave life--in
+the old land yet; even then it gave earnest that, when the bitter
+struggle for bread gave time for thought, reason and retrospect,
+southern literature would rise, in the might of a young giant, and
+shake herself wholly free from northern domination and convention.
+
+In art and her twin sister, music, the South displayed taste and
+progress truly remarkable in view of the absorbing nature of her
+duties. Like all inhabitants of semi-tropic climes, there had ever been
+shown by her people natural love and aptitude for melody. While this
+natural taste was wholly uncultivated--venting largely in plantation
+songs of the negroes--in districts where the music-master was
+necessarily abroad, it had reached high development in several of the
+large cities. Few of these were large enough, or wealthy enough, to
+support good operas, which the wealth of the North frequently lured to
+itself; but it may be recalled that New Orleans was genuinely enjoying
+opera, as a necessary of life, long before New York deemed it essential
+to study bad translations of librettos, in warmly-packed congregations
+of thousands.
+
+Mobile, Charleston, Savannah and other cities also had considerable
+latent music among their amateurs; happily not then brought to the
+surface by the fierce friction of poverty. And what was the musical
+talent of the Capital, has elsewhere been hinted. When the tireless
+daughters of Richmond had worked in every other way, for the soldiers
+themselves, they organized a system of concerts and dramatic evenings
+for benefit of their families. At these were shown evidences of
+individual excellence, truly remarkable; while their average displayed
+taste and finish, which skilled critics declared would compare
+favorably with any city in the country.
+
+The bands of the southern army--so long as they remained existent as
+separate organizations--were indisputably mediocre, when not
+atrociously bad. But it must be recalled that there was little time to
+practice, even in the beginning; literally no chance to obtain new
+music, or instruments; and that the better class of men--who usually
+make the best musicians--always preferred the musket to the bugle. Nor
+was there either incentive to good music, or appreciation for it, among
+the masses of the fighters. The drum and fife were the best they had
+known "at musters;" and they were good enough still, to fight by. So,
+recalling the prowess achieved constantly, in following them, it may be
+wondered what possible results might have come from inspiration of a
+marine band, a Grafulla, or a Gilmore!
+
+Likewise, in all art matters, the South was at least a decade behind
+her northern sisterhood. Climate, picturesque surrounding and natural
+warmth of character had awakened artistic sense, in many localities.
+But its development was scarcely appreciable, from lack of opportunity
+and of exemplar. The majority of southern girls were reared at their
+own homes; and art culture--beyond mild atrocities in crayon or
+water-color, or terrors bred of the nimble broiderer's needle--was a
+myth, indeed. A large number of young men--a majority, perhaps, of
+those who could afford it--received education at the North. Such of
+these as displayed peculiar aptitude for painting, were usually sent
+abroad for perfecting; and returning, they almost invariably settled in
+northern cities, where were found both superior opportunities and
+larger and better-paying class of patrons. But, when the tug came, not
+a few of these errant youths returned, to share it with their native
+states; and some of them found time, even in the stirring days of war,
+to transfer to canvas some of its most suggestive scenes.
+
+Of them, the majority were naturally about Richmond; not only as the
+great army center, but as the center of everything else. Among the
+latter were two favorite pupils of Leutze, William D. Washington and
+John A. Elder. Both Virginians, by birth and rearing, they had the
+great advantage of Dusseldorf training, while they were thoroughly
+acquainted and sympathetic with their subjects. Some of Washington's
+figure-pieces were very successful; finding ready sale at prices which,
+had they continued, might have made him a Meissonnier in pocket, as
+well as in local fame. His elaborate picture, illustrating the "Burial
+of Latane"--a subject which also afforded _motif_ for Thompson's
+most classic poem--attracted wide attention and favorable verdict from
+good critics. Mr. Washington also made many and excellent studies of
+the bold, picturesque scenery of his western campaigning, along the
+Gauley and Kanawha.
+
+Elder's pictures--while, perhaps, less careful in finish than those of
+his brother student--were nothing inferior as close character-studies
+of soldier-life. Their excellence was ever emphasized by prompt sale;
+and "The Scout's Prize" and the "Raider's Return"--both horse and
+landscape studies; as well as a ghastly, but most effective picture of
+the "Crater Fight" at Petersburg, made the young artist great reputation.
+
+Washington's "Latane" had _post-bellum_ reproduction, by the graver;
+becoming popular and widely-known, North and South. The three of
+Elder's pictures, named here, were purchased by a member of the British
+parliament; but, unfortunately, were destroyed in the fire of the _Dies
+irae_. The two first were duplicated, after the peace; and they gained
+praise and successful sale in New York.
+
+Mr. Guillam, a French student, worked carefully and industriously, at
+his Richmond studio; producing portraits of Lee, Jackson and others;
+which, having exaggerated mannerisms of the French school, still
+possessed no little merit. A remarkable life-size picture of General
+Lee, which produced much comment in Richmond, was done by a deaf-mute,
+Mr. Bruce. It was to have been bought by the State of Virginia;
+possibly from sympathy with the subject and the condition of the
+artist, rather than because of intrinsic merit as an art-work.
+
+But, perhaps, the most strikingly original pictures the war produced
+were those of John R. Key, a Maryland lieutenant of engineers; one of
+those descendants of "The Star Spangled Banner," early noted in this
+chapter. Young, ambitious and but little educated in art, Mr. Key made
+up that lack in boldness of subject and treatment. His school was
+largely his own; and he went for his subjects far out of the beaten
+track, treating them afterward with marked boldness and dash.
+
+"Drewry's Bluff" was a boldly-handled sketch of what the northern army
+persisted in calling "Fort Darling." It showed the same venturesome
+originality in color-use, the same breadth and fidelity that marked Mr.
+Key's later pictures of Sumter, Charleston harbor and scenes on the
+James river.
+
+These pictures named in common, with minor sketches from pencils less
+known at that time--among them that of William L. Sheppard, now famous
+as graphic delineator of southern scenes--illustrate both the details
+of the unique war, and the taste and heart of those who made it. Amid
+battles, sieges and sorrows, the mimic world behind the Chinese wall
+revolved on axis of its own. War was the business of life to every man;
+but, in the short pauses of its active strife, were shown both the
+taste and talent for the prettiest pursuits of peace. And the
+apparently unsurmountable difficulties, through which these were
+essayed, makes their even partial development more remarkable still.
+
+The press, the literature and the art of the Southern
+Confederacy--looked at in the light of her valor and endurance, shining
+from her hundred battle-fields--emphasize strongly the inborn nature of
+her people. And, while there were many whom the limits of this sketch
+leave unnamed, that sin of omission will not be registered against the
+author; for the men of the South--even in minor matters--did their work
+for the object and for the cause; not for self-illustration.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+WIT AND HUMOR OF THE WAR.
+
+
+If it be true that Sir Philip Sidney, burning with fever of his
+death-wound, reproved the soldier who brought him water in his helmet,
+that "he wasted a casque-full on a dying man," then humor borrowed
+largely of heroism.
+
+Many a ragged rebel--worn with hunger and anxiety for the cause, or for
+those absent loved ones who suffered for it--was as gallant as Sidney
+in the fray; many a one bore his bitter trial with the same gay heart.
+
+We have seen that the southron, war-worn, starving, could pour out his
+soul in noble song. Equally plain is it, that he rose in defiant glee
+over his own sufferings; striving to drown the sigh in a peal of
+resonant laughter. For humorous poetry abounds among all southern
+war-collections; some of it polished and keen in its satire; most of it
+striking hard and "straight-from-the-shoulder" blows at some detected
+error, or some crying abuse.
+
+One very odd and typical specimen of this was the "Confederate Mother
+Goose;" only catch verses of which appeared in the "Southern Literary
+Messenger," when under editorial charge of rare George Bagby. It was
+born of accident; several officers sitting over their pipes, around
+Bagby's editorial pine, scribbled in turn doggerel on some war subject.
+So good were a few of these hits that they astonished their unambitious
+authors, by appearance in the next issue of the magazine. As a record
+of war-humor, a few of them may be of interest at this late day. This
+one shows the great terror struck to the hearts of his enemies by the
+war-gong of General Pope:
+
+    "Little Be-Pope, he came at a lope,
+    'Jackson, the Rebel,' to find him.
+    He found him at last, then ran very fast,
+    With his gallant invaders behind him!"
+
+"Jackson's commissary" was a favorite butt for the shafts of rebel
+humor. Another "Mother Goose" thus pictures him:
+
+    "John Pope came down to our town
+      And thought him wondrous wise;
+    He jumped into a 'skeeter swamp
+      And started writing lies.
+    But when he found his lies were out--
+      With all his might and main
+    He changed his base to another place,
+      And began to lie again!"
+
+This verse on McClellan does not go to prove that the South respected
+any less the humane warfare, or the tactical ability of him his
+greatest opponents declared "the North's best general."
+
+    "Little McClellan sat eating a melon,
+      The Chickahominy by,
+    He stuck in his spade, then a long while delayed,
+      And cried 'What a brave general am I!'"
+
+Or this, embalming the military cant of the day:
+
+    "Henceforth, when a fellow is kicked out of doors,
+      He need never resent the disgrace;
+    But exclaim, 'My dear sir, I'm eternally yours,
+      For assisting in changing my base!'"
+
+Perhaps no pen, or no brush, in all the South limned with bolder stroke
+the follies, or the foibles, of his own, than did that of Innes
+Randolph, of Stuart's Engineer staff; later to win national fame by his
+"Good Old Rebel" song. Squib, picture and poem filled Randolph's
+letters, as brilliant flashes did his conversation. On Mr. Davis
+proclaiming Thanksgiving Day, after the unfortunate Tennessee campaign,
+Randolph versified the proclamation, section by section, as sample:
+
+    "For Bragg did well. Ah! who could tell
+      What merely human mind could augur,
+    That they would run from Lookout Mount,
+      Who fought so well at Chickamauga!"
+
+Round many a smoky camp-fire were sung clever songs, whose humor died
+with their gallant singers, for want of recording memories in those
+busy days. Latham, Caskie and Page McCarty sent out some of the best of
+the skits; a few verses of one by the latter's floating to mind, from
+the snowbound camp on the Potomac, stamped by his vein of rollicking
+satire-with-a-tear in it:
+
+    "Manassas' field ran red with gore,
+    With blood the Bull Run ran;
+    The freeman struck for hearth and home,
+          Or any other man!
+    And Longstreet with his fierce brigade
+    Stood in the red redan;
+    He waved his saber o'er his head,
+          Or any other man!
+    Ah! few shall part where many meet,
+    In battle's bloody van;
+    The snow shall be their winding-sheet,
+          Or any other man!"
+
+Naturally enough, with a people whose nerves were kept at abnormal
+tension, reaction carried the humor of the South largely into travesty.
+Where the reality was ever somber, creation of the unreal found popular
+and acceptable form in satiric verse. Major Caskie--who ever went into
+battle with a smile on his lips--found time, between fights, for broad
+pasquinade on folly about him, with pen and pencil. His very clever
+parody of a touching and well-known poem of the time, found its way to
+many a camp-fire and became a classic about the Richmond "hells." It
+began:
+
+    "You can never win them back,
+          Never, never!
+    And you'd better leave the track
+          Now forever!
+    Tho' you 'cut' and 'deal the pack'
+    And 'copper' every Jack,
+    You'll lose 'stack' after 'stack'--
+          Forever!"
+
+Everything tending to bathos--whether for the cause, or against
+it--caught its quick rebuke, at the hands of some glib funmaker. Once
+an enthusiastic admirer of the hero of Charleston indited a glowing
+ode, of which the refrain ran:
+
+    _Beau sabreur, beau canon_,
+      _Beau soldat_--Beauregard!
+
+Promptly came another, and most distorted version; its peculiar refrain
+enfolding:
+
+    Beau Brummel, Beau Fielding,
+      Beau Hickman--Beauregard!
+
+As it is not of record that the commander of the Army of Northern
+Virginia ever discovered the junior laureate, the writer will not essay
+to do so.
+
+Colonel Tom August, of the First Virginia, was the Charles Lamb of
+Confederate war-wits; genial, quick and ever gay. Early in secession
+days, a bombastic friend approached Colonel Tom, with the query: "Well,
+sir, I presume your voice is still for war?"
+
+To which the wit replied promptly: "Oh, yes, devilish still!"
+
+Later, when the skies looked darkest and rumors of abandoning Richmond
+were wildly flying, Colonel August was limping up the street. A
+_quidnunc_ hailed him:
+
+"Well! The city is to be given up. They're moving the medical stores."
+
+"Glad of it!" called back Colonel Tom--"We'll get rid of all this blue
+mass!"
+
+From the various army camps floated out stories, epigrams and anecdotes
+unnumbered; most of them wholly forgotten, with only a few remembered
+from local color, or peculiar point. General Zeb Vance's apostrophe to
+the buck-rabbit, flying by him from heavy rifle fire: "Go it,
+cotton-tail! If I hadn't a reputation, I'd be with you!"--was a
+favorite theme for variations. Similarly modified to fit, was the
+protest of the western recruit, ordered on picket at Munson's Hill:
+
+"Go yander ter keep 'un off! Wy, we'uns kem hyah ter fight th' Yanks;
+an' ef you'uns skeer 'un off, how'n thunder ez thar goan ter be a
+scrimmidge, no how?"
+
+A different story--showing quick resource, where resources were
+lacking--is told of gallant Theodore O'Hara, who left the noblest poem
+of almost any war, "The Bivouac of the Dead." While he was
+adjutant-general, a country couple sidled shyly up to headquarters of
+his division, one day; the lady blushingly stating their business. It
+was the most important one of life: they wanted to marry. So, a council
+of war was held, no chaplain being available; and the general insisted
+on O'Hara tying the knot. Finally, he consented to try; the couple
+stood before him; the responses as to obedience and endowment were
+made; and there O'Hara stuck fast!
+
+"Go on!" prompted the general--"The benediction."
+
+The A.A.G. paused, stammered; then, raising his hand grandly, shouted
+in stentorian tones:
+
+"In the name and by the authority of the Confederate States of North
+America, I proclaim you man and wife!"
+
+A grim joke is handed down from the winter camps before Atlanta, when
+rations were not only worst but least. A knot round a mess-fire
+examined ruefully the tiny bits of moldy bacon, stuck on their
+bayonet-grills, when one hard old veteran remarked:
+
+"Say, boys! Didn't them fellers wot died las' spring jest _git_ th'
+commissary, though!"
+
+Another, not very nice, still points equally the dire straits of the
+men, from unchanged clothing, and their grim humor under even that
+trial. Generals Lee and Ewell--riding through a quiet road in deep
+consultation, followed by members of their staff--came suddenly upon a
+North Carolinian at the roadside. Nude to the waist, and careless of
+the august presences near, the soldier paid attention only to the dingy
+shirt he held over the smoke of some smoldering brush. The generals
+past, an aide spurred up to the toilet-making vet, and queried sharply:
+
+"Didn't you see the generals, sir? What in thunder are you doing?"
+
+"Skirmishin'!" drawled the unmoved warrior--"An' I ent takin' no
+pris'ners, nuther!"
+
+After this lapse of time--when retrospect shows but the gloom and
+sorrow which shadowed the dark "days of storm and stress," while none
+of the excitement and tension in them remains--it may seem
+incomprehensible that the South could laugh in song, while she suffered
+and fought and starved. Stranger still must it be to know that many a
+merry peal rang through the barred windows of the fortress-prisons of
+the North. Yet, many a one of the exchanged captives brought back a
+rollicking "prison glee;" and some sing, even to-day, the legend of
+"Fort Delaware, Del."
+
+The "Prison Wails" of Thomas F. Roche, a Marylander long captive, is a
+close and clever parody on General Lytell's "I am dying, Egypt," which
+came through the lines and won warm admirers South. It describes prison
+discipline, diet and dirt, with keen point and broad grin. From its
+opening lines:
+
+    "I am busted, mother--busted!
+      Gone th' last unhappy check;
+    And th' infernal sutlers' prices
+      Make my pocket-book a wreck!--"
+
+to the human, piteous plaint that ends it:
+
+    "Ah! Once more, among the lucky,
+      Let thy hopeful buy and swell;
+    Bankers and rich brokers aid thee!
+      Shell! sweet mother mine, Oh! shell!--"
+
+the original is closely followed and equally distorted.
+
+But strangest, amid all strange humors of the war, was that which
+echoed laughter over the leaguered walls of scarred, starving,
+desperate Vicksburg! No siege in all history tells of greater peril and
+suffering, borne with wondrous endurance and heroism, by men and women.
+It is a story of privation unparalleled, met by fortitude and calm
+acceptance which recall the early martyrdoms for faith! And, indeed,
+love of country grew to be a religion, especially with the women of the
+South, though happily none proved it by stress so dire as those of her
+heroic city; and they cherished it in the darkest midnight of their
+cause, with constancy and hope that nerved the strong and shamed the
+laggard.
+
+That history is one long series of perils and privations--of absolute
+isolation--sufficient to have worn down the strongest and to have
+quenched even
+
+    The smile of the South, on the lips and the eyes--
+          Of her barefooted boys!
+
+Yet, even in Vicksburg--torn by shot and shell, hopeless of relief from
+without, reduced to direst straits of hunger within--the supreme rebel
+humor rose above nature; and men toiled and starved, fought their
+hopeless fight and died--not with the stoicism of the fatalist, but
+with the cheerfulness of duty well performed! And when Vicksburg fell,
+a curious proof of this was found; a manuscript bill-of-fare,
+surmounted by rough sketch of a mule's head crossed by a human hand
+holding a Bowie-knife. That memorable _menu_ reads:
+
+
+    HOTEL DE VICKSBURG, BILL OF FARE, FOR JULY, 1863.
+
+    SOUP: Mule tail.
+
+    BOILED: Mule bacon, with poke greens; mule ham, canvassed.
+
+    ROAST: Mule sirloin; mule rump, stuffed with rice; saddle-of-mule,
+    _a l'armee_.
+
+    VEGETABLES: Boiled rice; rice, hard boiled; hard rice, any way.
+
+    ENTREES: Mule head, stuffed _a la Reb_; mule beef, jerked _a la
+    Yankie_; mule ears, fricasseed _a la getch_; mule side, stewed--new
+    style, hair on; mule liver, hashed _a l'explosion_.
+
+    SIDE DISHES: Mule salad; mule hoof, soused; mule brains _a
+    l'omelette_; mule kidneys, _braises_ on ramrod; mule tripe, on half
+    (Parrot) shell; mule tongue, cold, _a la_ Bray.
+
+    JELLIES: Mule foot (3-to-yard); mule bone, _a la_ trench.
+
+    PASTRY: Rice pudding, pokeberry sauce; cottonwood-berry pie, _a la_
+    iron-clad; chinaberry tart.
+
+    DESSERT: White-oak acorns; beech-nuts; blackberry-leaf tea; genuine
+    Confederate coffee.
+
+    LIQUORS: Mississippi water, vintage 1492, very superior, $3;
+    limestone water, late importation, very fine, $3.75; spring water,
+    Vicksburg bottled up, $4.
+
+    Meals at few hours. Gentlemen to wait upon themselves. Any
+    inattention in service should be promptly reported at the office.
+
+                                     JEFF DAVIS & CO., _Proprietors_.
+
+    CARD: The proprietors of the justly-celebrated Hotel de Vicksburg,
+    having enlarged and refitted the same, are now prepared to
+    accommodate all who may favor them with a call. Parties arriving by
+    the river, or by Grant's inland route, will find Grape, Cannister &
+    Co.'s carriages at the landing, or any depot on the line of
+    entrenchments. Buck, Ball & Co. take charge of all baggage. No
+    effort will be spared to make the visit of all as interesting as
+    possible.
+
+This capture was printed in the Chicago _Tribune_, with the comment
+that it was a ghastly and melancholy burlesque. There is really a train
+of melancholy in the reflection that it was so little of a burlesque;
+that they who could endure such a siege, on such fare, should have been
+compelled to bear their trial in vain. But the quick-satisfying
+reflection must follow of the truth, the heroism--the moral
+invincibility--of a people who could so endure and--laugh!
+
+But it was not only from the soldiers and the camps that the humor of
+the South took its color. Spite of the strain upon its better
+part--from anxiety, hope-deferred and actual privation--the society of
+every city keeps green memories of brilliant things said and written,
+on the spur of excitement and contact, that kept the sense of the whole
+people keenly alert for any point--whether serious or ridiculous.
+
+The society of the Capital was marked evidence of this. It preserved
+many epigrammatic gems; often coming from the better--and brighter--half
+of its composition. For Richmond women had long been noted for society
+ease and _aplomb_, as well as for quickness of wit; and now the social
+amalgam held stranger dames and maidens who might have shown in any
+_salon_.
+
+A friend of the writer--then a gallant staff-officer; now a grave,
+sedate and semi-bald counsellor--had lately returned from European
+capitals; and he was, of course, in envied possession of brilliant
+uniform and equipment. At a certain ball, his glittering blind-spurs
+became entangled in the flowing train of a dancing belle--one of the
+most brilliant of _the_ set. She stopped in mid-waltz; touched my
+friend on the broidered chevron with taper fingers, and sweetly said:
+
+"Captain, may I trouble you to dismount?"
+
+Another noted girl--closely connected with the administration--made one
+of a distinguished party invited by Secretary Mallory to inspect a
+newly-completed iron-clad, lying near the city. It was after many
+reverses had struck the navy, causing--as heretofore shown--destruction
+of similar ships. Every detail of this one explained, lunch over and
+her good fortune drunk, the party were descending the steps to the
+captain's gig, when this belle stopped short.
+
+"Oh! Mr. Secretary!" she smiled innocently--"You forgot to show us one
+thing!"
+
+"Indeed?" was the bland query--"Pray what was it?"
+
+To which came the startling rejoinder:
+
+"Why your arrangement for blowing them up!"
+
+There was one handsome and dashing young aide, equally noted for
+influence at division-headquarters, which sent him constantly to
+Richmond; and for persistent devotion, when there, to a sharp-witted
+belle with a great fortune. One night he appeared at a soiree in brand
+new uniform, his captain's bars replaced by the major's star on the
+collar. The belle, leaning on his arm wearily, was pouting; when
+another passed and said: "I congratulate you, major. And what are your
+new duties?"
+
+The officer hesitated only one instant, but that was fatal; for the lady
+on his arm softly lisped: "Oh! he is _Mrs._ General ----'s commissary,
+with the rank of major!"
+
+It is needless to add that the epigram--unjust as it was--had its
+effect; and the belle was no more besieged.
+
+But of all the bright coteries in Richmond society--its very arcanum of
+wit, brilliance and culture--rises to memory that wholly unique set,
+that came somehow to be called "the Mosaic Club." Organization it was
+none; only a clique of men and women--married as well as single--that
+comprised the best intellects and prettiest accomplishments of the
+Capital. Many of the ladies were Will Wyatt's "easy goers;" ever
+tolerant, genial and genuine at the _symposia_ of the Mosaics, as
+they showed behind their _chevaux-de-frise_ of knitting-needles
+elsewhere. Some of them have since graced happy and luxurious homes;
+some have struggled with poverty and sorrow as only true womanhood may
+struggle; some have fought out the battle of life, sleeping now at rest
+forever. But one and all then faced their duty--sad, bitter, uncongenial
+as it might be--with loyalty and tender truth; one and all were strong
+enough to put by somber things, when meet to do so, and enjoy to the
+full the better pleasures society might offer.
+
+And the men one met wore wreaths upon their collars often; quite as
+likely _chevrons_ of "the men" upon their sleeves. Cabinet ministers,
+poets, statesmen, artists, and clergymen even were admitted to the
+"Mosaics;" the only "_Open sesame!_" to which its doors fell wide
+being that patent of nobility stamped by brain and worth alone.
+
+Without organization, without officers; grown of itself and meeting as
+chance, or winter inactivity along army lines dictated--the Mosaic Club
+had no habitat. Collecting in one hospitable parlor, or another--as
+good fortune happened to provide better material for the delighting
+"muffin-match," or the entrancing "waffle-worry," as Will Wyatt
+described those festal procedures--the intimates who chanced in town
+were bidden; or, hearing of it, came to the feast of waffles and the
+flow of coffee--real coffee! without bids. They were ever welcome and
+knew it; and they were likewise sure of something even better than
+muffins, or coffee, to society-hungry men from the camps. And once
+gathered, the serious business of "teaing" over, the fun of the evening
+began.
+
+The unwritten rule--indeed, the only rule--was the "forfeit essay," a
+game productive of so much that was novel and brilliant, that no later
+invention of peace-times has equaled it. At each meeting two hats would
+be handed round, all drawing a question from the one, a word from the
+other; question and word to be connected in either a song, poem, essay,
+or tale for the next meeting. Then, after the drawing for forfeits,
+came the results of the last lottery of brain; interspersed with music
+by the best performers and singers of the city; with jest and
+seriously-brilliant talk, until the wee sma' hours, indeed.
+
+O! those nights ambrosial, if not of Ambrose's, which dashed the somber
+picture of war round Richmond, with high-lights boldly put in by
+master-hands! Of them were quaint George Bagby, Virginia's pet
+humorist; gallant, cultured Willie Meyers; original Trav Daniel;
+Washington, artist, poet and musician; Page McCarty, recklessly
+brilliant in field and frolic alike; Ham Chamberlayne, quaint,
+cultivated and colossal in originality; Key, Elder and other artists;
+genial, jovial Jim Pegram; Harry Stanton, Kentucky's soldier poet--and
+a score of others who won fame, even if some of them lost life--on far
+different fields. There rare "Ran" Tucker--later famed in Congress and
+law school--told inimitably the story of "The time the stars fell," or
+sang the unprecedented ballad of "The Noble Skewball," in his own
+unprecedented fashion!
+
+It was at the Mosaic that Innes Randolph first sang his now famous
+"Good Old Rebel" song; and there his marvelous quickness was Aaron's
+rod to swallow all the rest. As example, once he drew from one hat the
+words, "Daddy Longlegs;" from the other, the question, "What sort of
+shoe was made on the Last of the Mohicans?" Not high wit these, to
+ordinary seeming; and yet apparent posers for sensible rhyme. But they
+puzzled Randolph not a whit; and--waiving his "grace" until the
+subsequent meeting, he rattled off extempore:
+
+    "Old Daddy Longlegs was a sinner hoary
+    And punished for his wickedness, according to the story.
+    Between him and the Indian shoe, this likeness doth come in,
+    One made a mock o' virtue, and one a moccasin!"
+
+Laughter and applause were, in mid-roar, cut by Randolph's voice
+calling:
+
+    _Corollary first:_ If Daddy Longlegs stole the Indian's shoe to
+    keep his foot warm, that was no excuse for him to steal his house,
+    to keep his wigwam.
+
+And again he broke down--only to renew--the chorus with:
+
+    _Corollary second:_ Because the Indian's shoe did not fit any
+    Mohawk, was no reason that it wouldn't fit Narragansett!
+
+Such, in brief retrospect was the Mosaic Club! Such in part the fun and
+fancy and frolic that filled those winter nights in Richmond, when
+sleet and mud made movements of armies, "Heaven bless us! a thing of
+naught!"
+
+The old colonel--that staff veteran, so often quoted in these
+pages--was a rare, if unconscious humorist. Gourmet born, connoisseur
+by instinct and clubman by life habit, the colonel writhed in spirit
+under discomfort and camp fare, even while he bore both heroically in
+the flesh; his two hundred and sixty pounds of it! Once, Styles Staple
+and Will Wyatt met him, inspecting troops in a West Virginia town; and
+they received a long lecture, _a la_ Brillat Savarin, on enormities of
+the kitchen.
+
+"And these people have fine wines, too," sadly wound up the colonel.
+"Marvelous wines, egad! But they don't know how to let you enjoy them!"
+
+"'Tis a hard case," sympathized Styles, "I do hear sometimes of a
+fellow getting a stray tea, but as for a dinner! It's no use, colonel;
+these people either don't _dine_ themselves, or they imagine we don't."
+
+"Did it ever strike you," said the colonel, waxing philosophic, "that
+you _can't_ dine in but two places south of the Potomac? True, sir.
+Egad! You may stumble upon a country gentleman with a plentiful larder
+and a passable cook, but then, egad, sir! he's an oasis. The mass of
+the people South don't live, sir! they vegetate--vegetate and nothing
+else. You get watery soups. Then they offer you mellow madeira with
+some hot, beastly joint; and oily old sherry with some confounded stew.
+Splendid materials--materials that the hand of an artist would make
+luscious--egad, sir; _luscious_--utterly ruined in the handling. It's
+too bad, Styles, too bad!"
+
+"It is, indeed," put in Wyatt, falling into the colonel's vein, "too
+bad! And as for steaks, why, sir, there is not a steak in this whole
+country. They stew them, colonel, actually _stew beefsteaks_! Listen to
+the receipt a 'notable housewife' gave me: 'Put a juicy steak, cut two
+inches thick, in a saucepan; cover it well with water; put in a large
+lump of lard and two sliced onions. Let it simmer till the water dries;
+add a small lump of butter and a dash of pepper--and it's done!' Think
+of that, sir, for a _bonne bouche_!"
+
+"Good God!" ejaculated the colonel, with beads on his brow. "I have
+seen those things, but I never knew how they were done! I shall dream
+of this, egad! for weeks."
+
+"Fact, sir," Wyatt added, "and I've a theory that no nation deserves
+its liberties that stews its steaks. Can't gain them, sir! How can men
+legislate--how can men fight with a pound of stewed abomination holding
+them like lead? 'Bold and erect the Caledonian stood,' but how long do
+you think he would have been 'bold,' if they had stewed his 'rare beef'
+for him? No, sir! mark my words: the nation that stews its beefsteaks
+contracts its boundaries! As for an omelette----"
+
+"Say no more, Will!" broke in the colonel solemnly. "After the war,
+come to my club and we'll dine--egad, sir! _for a week!_"
+
+That invincible pluck of the southron, which carried him through
+starvation and the sweltering march of August, through hailing shot and
+shell, and freezing mud of midwinter camps--was unconquered even after
+the surrender. Equally invincible was that twin humor, which laughed
+amid all these and bore up, even in defeat. Some of the keenest hits of
+all the war--tinctured though they be with natural bitterness--are
+recalled from those days, when the beaten, but defiant, Rebel was
+passing under the victor's yoke.
+
+Surprising, indeed, to its administrators must have been the result of
+"the oath," forced upon one green cavalryman, before he could return to
+family and farm. Swallowing the obnoxious allegiance, he turned to the
+Federal officer and quietly asked:
+
+"Wail, an' now I reck'n I'm loyil, ain't I?"
+
+"Oh, yes! You're all right," carelessly replied the captor.
+
+"An' ef I'm loyil, I'm same as you 'uns?" persisted the lately sworn.
+"We're all good Union alike, eh?"
+
+"Oh, yes," the officer humored him. "We're all one now."
+
+"Wail then," rejoined Johnny Reb slowly, "didn't them darned rebs jest
+geen us hell sometimes?"
+
+City Point, on the James river, was the landing for transports with
+soldiers released from northern prisons, after parole. A bustling,
+self-important major of United States volunteers was at one time there,
+in charge. One day a most woe-begone, tattered and emaciated "Johnnie"
+sat swinging his shoeless feet from a barrel, awaiting his turn.
+
+"It isn't far to Richmond," suddenly remarked the smart major, to
+nobody in particular.
+
+"Reck'n et's neer onto three thousin' mile," drawled the Confed.
+weakly.
+
+"Nonsense! You must be crazy," retorted the officer staring.
+
+"Wail, I ent a-reck'nin' adzact," was the slow reply--"Jest tho't so,
+kinder."
+
+"Oh! you did? And pray why?"
+
+"Cos et's took'n you'uns nigh onto foore year to git thar from
+Wash'nton," was the settling retort.
+
+In the provost-marshal's department at Richmond, shortly after
+surrender, was the neatest and most irrepressible of youths. Never
+discourteous and often too sympathetic, he was so overcurious as to be
+what sailors describe as "In everybody's mess and nobody's watch." One
+day a quaint, Dickensesque old lady stood hesitant in the office
+doorway. Short, wrinkled and bent with age, she wore a bombazine gown
+of antique cut--its whilom black red-rusty from time's dye. But "Aunt
+Sallie" was a character in Henrico county; and noted withal for the
+sharpest of tongues and a fierce pair of undimmed eyes, which now shone
+under the dingy-brown poke bonnet. Toward her sallied the flippant
+young underling, with the greeting:
+
+"Well, madam, what do _you_ wish?"
+
+"What do I wish?" The old lady grew restive and battle-hungry.
+
+"Yes'm! That's what I asked," retorted the youth sharply.
+
+"What do I wish?" slowly repeated the still-rebellious dame. "Well, if
+you _must_ know, I wish all you Yankees were in ---- hell!"
+
+But not all the humor was confined to the governing race; some of its
+points cropping out sharply here and there, from under the wool of "the
+oppressed brother"--in-law. One case is recalled of the spoiled body
+servant of a gallant Carolinian, one of General Wheeler's brigade
+commanders. His master reproved his speech thus:
+
+"Peter, you rascal! Why don't you speak English, instead of saying 'wah
+yo' is'?"
+
+"Waffer, Mars' Sam?" queried the negro with an innocent grin. "Yo allus
+calls de Gen'ral--_Weel_-er?"
+
+Another, close following the occupation, has a spice of higher satire.
+A Richmond friend had a petted maid, who--devoted and constant to her
+mistress, even in those tempting days--still burned with genuine negro
+curiosity for a sight of everything pertaining to "Mars' Linkum's
+men"--especially for "de skule."
+
+For swift, indeed, were the newcome saints to preach the Evangel of
+alphabet; and negro schools seemed to have been smuggled in by every
+army ambulance, so numerously did they spring up in the captured
+Capital. So, early one day, Clarissa Sophia, the maid of color, donned
+her very best and, "with shiny morning face," hied her, like anything
+but a snail, to school. Very brief was her absence; her return
+reticent, but pouting and with unduly tip-tilted nose. After a time
+negro love for confidences conquered; and the murder came out.
+
+The school-room had been packed and pervaded with odors--of sanctity,
+or otherwise--when a keen-nosed and eager school-marm rose up to exhort
+her class. She began by impressing the great truth that every sister
+present was "born free and equal;" was "quite as good" as she was.
+
+"Wa' dat yo's sain' now?" interrupted Clarissa Sophia. "Yo' say Ise
+jess ekal as yo' is?"
+
+"Yes; I said so," was the sharp retort, "and I can prove it!"
+
+"Ho! 'Tain't no need," replied the lately disenthralled. "Reck'n I is,
+sho' nuff. But does yo' say dat Ise good as missus?--_my_ missus?"
+
+"Certainly you are!" This with asperity.
+
+"Den Ise jess gwine out yere, rite off!" cried Clarissa Sophia, suiting
+action to word--"Ef Ise good as _my_ missus, I'se goin' ter quit; fur I
+jess know _she_ ent 'soshiatin' wid no sich wite trash like you is!"
+
+And so--under all skies and among all colors--the war dragged its weary
+length out; amid sufferings and sacrifices, which may never be
+recorded; and which were still illumined by the flashes of unquenchable
+humor--God's tonic for the heart!
+
+Had every camp contained its Froissart--had every social circle held
+its Boswell--what a record would there be, for reading by generations
+yet unborn!
+
+But--when finished, as this cramped and quite unworthy chronicle of
+random recollections is--then might the reader still quote justly her
+of Sheba, exclaiming:
+
+"And behold! the one-half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told
+me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
+
+
+While neither in itself--perhaps not the combination of the two--was
+final and conclusive, the beginning of the end of the Confederacy may
+be dated from the loss of Vicksburg and the simultaneous retreat from
+Gettysburg. For these two disasters made all classes consider more
+deeply, both their inducing causes and the final results that must
+follow a succession of such crushing blows.
+
+There can be little doubt that a complete victory at Gettysburg,
+vigorously followed up, would have ended the war; and the
+generally-accepted belief in the South was that the exhaustive defeat
+was proportionately bad. The war had been going on two years and a
+half. Every device had been used to put the whole numerical strength of
+the country into the field and to utilize its every resource. The South
+had succeeded to a degree that stupefied the outside world and
+astonished even herself. But the effort had exhausted, and left her
+unfit to renew it. Over and again the armies of the East and West had
+been re-enforced, reorganized and re-equipped--and ever came the heavy,
+relentless blows of the seemingly-exhaustless power, struggled against
+so vainly. The South had inflicted heavy loss in men, material and
+prestige; but she wasted her strength in these blows, while unhappily
+she could not make them effective by quick repetition.
+
+The people, too, had lost their early faith in the Government. They had
+submitted to the most stringent levy of conscription and impressment
+ever imposed upon a nation. They had willingly left their fields to
+grow weeds, their children to run wild and perhaps to starve; they had
+cheerfully divided their last supplies of food with the Government, and
+had gone to the front steadily and hopefully. But now they could not
+fail to see that, in some points at least, there had been gross
+mismanagement. The food for which their families were pinched and
+almost starved, did not come to the armies. Vast stores of provision
+and supplies were blocked on the roads, while speculators' ventures
+passed over them. This, the soldiers in the trench and the laborer at
+the anvil saw equally.
+
+They saw, too, that the Government was divided against itself; for the
+worse than weak Congress--which had formerly been as a nose of wax in
+Mr. Davis' fingers--had now turned dead against him. With the stolid
+obstinacy of stupidity it now refused to see any good in any measure,
+or in any man, approved by the Executive.
+
+Under the leadership of Mr. Foote--who wasted the precious time of
+Congress in windy personal diatribes against Mr. Davis and his
+"pets"--nothing was done to combine and strengthen the rapidly
+sundering elements of Confederate strength. Long debates on General
+Pemberton; weighty disquisitions on such grave subjects as the number
+of pounds of pork on hand when Vicksburg was surrendered; and violent
+attacks on the whole _past_ course of the administration, occupied
+the minds of those lawgivers. But at this time there was no single
+measure originated that proposed to stop the troubles in the future.
+
+Therefore, the people lost confidence in the divided Government; and
+losing it began to distrust themselves. Suffering so for it, they could
+not fail to know the terrible strain to which the country had been
+subjected. They knew that her resources in men and material had been
+taxed to the limit; that there was no fresh supply of either upon which
+to draw. This was the forlorn view that greeted them when they looked
+within. And outside, fresh armies faced and threatened them on every
+side--increased rather than diminished, and better armed and provided
+than ever before.
+
+This state of things was too patent not to be seen by the plainest men;
+and seeing it, those became dispirited who never had doubted before.
+And this time, the gloom did not lift; it became a settled and dogged
+conviction that we were fighting the good fight almost against hope.
+Not that this prevented the army and the people from working still,
+with every nerve strained to its utmost tension; but they worked
+without the cheery hopefulness of the past.
+
+Fate seemed against them. Had they been Turks they would have said: "It
+is _kismet_! Allah is great!" As they were only staunch patriots, they
+reasoned: "It is fearful odds--but we _may_ win." And so solemnly,
+gloomily--but none the less determined--the South again prepared for
+the scarcely doubtful strife.
+
+The stringent addenda to the Conscription law--that had come too
+late--were put into force. All men that could possibly be spared--and
+whom the trickery of influence could not relieve--were sent to the
+front; and their places in the Government were filled by the aged, the
+disabled, and by women. In the Government departments of Richmond--and
+in their branches further South--the first ladies of the land took
+position as clerks--driven to it by stress of circumstances. And now as
+ever--whether in the arsenals, the factories, or the accountant's
+desk--the women of the South performed their labor faithfully,
+earnestly and well. Those men who could not possibly be spared, were
+formed into companies for local defense; were regularly drilled,
+mustered into service, and became in fact regular soldiers, simply
+detailed to perform other work. When the wild notes of the alarm bell
+sent their frequent peals over Richmond, and warned of an approaching
+raid--armorer, butcher and clerk threw down hammer and knife and pen,
+and seized their muskets to hasten to the rendezvous. Even the
+shopkeepers and speculators, who seemed conscription-proof, were
+mustered into some sort of form; driven to make at least a show of
+resistance to the raid, by which they would suffer more than any
+others. But it was only a show; and so much more attention was paid in
+these organizations to filling of the commissary wagon than of the
+cartridge-box, that the camps of such "melish," in the woods around
+Richmond, were converted more into a picnic than a defense.
+
+Supplies of war material, of clothing, and of arms, had now become as
+scarce as men. The constant drain had to be supplied from
+manufactories, worked under great difficulties; and these now were
+almost paralyzed by the necessity for their operatives at the front.
+Old supplies of iron, coal and ore had been worked up; and obtaining
+and utilizing fresh ones demanded an amount of labor that could not be
+spared. The blockade had now become thoroughly effective; and, except a
+rare venture at some unlooked-for spot upon the coast, no vessel was
+expected to come safely through the network of ships. Blankets and
+shoes had almost completely given out; and a large proportion of the
+army went barefoot and wrapped in rugs given by the ladies of the
+cities, who cut up their carpets for that purpose.
+
+Yet, in view of all this privation; with a keen sense of their own
+sacrifices and a growing conviction that they were made in vain, the
+army kept up in tone and spirits. There was no intention or desire to
+yield, as long as a blow could be struck for the cause; and the veteran
+and the "new issue"--as the new conscripts were called in derision of
+the currency--alike determined to work on as steadily, if not so
+cheerily, as before.
+
+And still Congress wrangled on with Government and within itself; still
+Mr. Foote blew clouds of vituperative gas at President and Cabinet;
+still Mr. Davis retained, in council and field, the men he had chosen.
+And daily he grew more unpopular with the people, who, disagreeing with
+him, still held him in awe, while they despised the Congress. Even in
+this strait, the old delusion about the collapse of Federal finance
+occasionally came up for hopeful discussion; and, from time to time,
+Mr. Benjamin would put out a feeler about recognition from governments
+that remembered us less than had we really been behind the great wall
+of China.
+
+After Gettysburg and Vicksburg, came a lull in the heavier operations
+of the war. But raids of the enemy's cavalry were organized and sent to
+penetrate the interior South, in every direction. To meet them were
+only home guards and the militia; with sometimes a detachment of
+cavalry, hastily brought up from a distant point. This latter branch of
+service, as well as light artillery, now began to give way. The fearful
+strain upon both, in forced and distant marches, added to the wearing
+campaigns over the Potomac, had used up the breed of horses in the
+South. Those remaining were broken down by hard work and half feed; so
+that one-half the cavalry was dismounted--belonging to "Company Q" the
+men called it--and the rest was scarcely available for a rapid march,
+or a very heavy shock.
+
+But the cavalry of the enemy had increased wonderfully in drill,
+discipline and general efficiency. Armed with the best weapons, mounted
+upon choice horses, composed of picked men and officered by the boldest
+spirits in the North, Federal cavalry now began to be the most potent
+arm of their service. Men sadly recalled the pleasant days when the
+brilliant squadrons of Hampton, or Fitz Lee--the flower of the South,
+mounted on its best blood stock--dashed laughingly down upon three
+times their force, only to see them break and scatter; while many of
+their number rolled over the plain, by the acts of their own steeds
+rather than of hostile sabers. Even much later, when the men were
+ragged and badly armed, and the horses were gaunt from famine, they
+still could meet the improving horsemen of the enemy and come off
+victors--as witness the battles of the Fords. But now the Yankees had
+learned to fight--and more incomprehensible still to the Reb, they had
+learned to ride! They were superior in numbers, equipment, and--to be
+honest--in discipline; and could no longer be met with any certainty of
+success. It was a bitter thing for the Golden Horse Shoe Knights; but
+like many ugly things about this time, it was true. So the Yankee
+raids--aimed as a finality for Richmond, but ever failing approach to
+their object--still managed to do incalculable mischief. They drove off
+the few remaining cattle, stole and destroyed the hoarded mite of the
+widowed and unprotected--burned barns--destroyed farming utensils; and,
+worse than all, they demoralized the people and kept them in constant
+dread.
+
+As a counter-irritant, and to teach the enemy a lesson, General Morgan,
+early in July, started on a raid into the Northwest. With 2,000 men and
+a light battery, he passed through Kentucky and on to the river,
+leaving a line of conquest and destruction behind him--here scattering
+a regiment of the enemy--there demoralizing a home guard; and, at the
+river, fighting infantry and a gunboat, and forcing his way across into
+Indiana. Great was the scare in the West, at this first taste the fine
+fruits of raiding. Troops were telegraphed, engines flew up and down
+the roads as if possessed; and in short, home guards, and other troops,
+were collected to the number of nearly 30,000 men.
+
+Evading pursuit, and scattering the detached bands he met, Morgan
+crossed the Ohio line--tearing up roads, cutting telegraphs, and
+inflicting much damage and inconceivable panic--until he reached within
+five miles of Cincinnati. Of course, with his merely nominal force, he
+could make no attempt on the city; so, after fourteen days of unresting
+raiding--his command pressed, worn out and broken down--he headed for
+the river once more. A small portion of the command had already
+crossed, when the pursuing force came up. Morgan made heavy fight, but
+his men were outnumbered and exhausted. A few, following him, cut their
+way through the enemy and fled along the north bank of the Ohio. The
+pursuit was fierce and hot; the flight determined, fertile in
+expedients, but hopeless in an enemy's country, raised to follow the
+cry. He was captured, with most of his staff and all of his command
+that was left--save the few hundred who had crossed the river and
+escaped into the mountains of Virginia.
+
+Then for four months--until he dug his way out of his dungeon with a
+small knife--John Morgan was locked up as a common felon, starved,
+insulted and treated with brutality, the recital of which sickens--even
+having his head shaved! There was no excuse ever attempted; no pretense
+that he was a guerrilla. It was done simply to glut spite and to make a
+dreaded enemy feel his captors' power.
+
+Meantime General Bragg, at Tullahoma, faced by Rosecrans and flanked by
+Burnside's "Army of the Cumberland," was forced to fall back to
+Chattanooga. Rosecrans pressed him hard, with the intent of carrying
+out that pet scheme of the North, forcing his army down through Georgia
+and riddling the Cotton States. It is inessential here to recount the
+details of these movements. Rosecrans had a heavy and compact force;
+ours was weak and scattered, and Bragg's urgent appeal for men met the
+invariable answer, there were none to send. For the same
+reason--insufficient force--Buckner was forced to abandon Knoxville;
+and a few weeks later Cumberland Gap, the key-position to East
+Tennessee and Georgia, was surrendered!
+
+At this critical juncture the loss of that position could scarcely be
+exaggerated; and the public indignantly demanded of Government why it
+had been lost. The War Department shifted the responsibility, and
+declared that no reason existed; that the place was provisioned and
+impregnable, and that the responsibility rested alone with the officer
+in command, who was now a prisoner with his whole force.
+
+This hardly satisfied the public clamor; and so ill-omened a
+commencement augured badly for the success of the campaign for
+position, in which both armies were now manoeuvring. The real details
+of these preliminary movements are scarcely clear to this day. General
+Bragg's friends declare that he forced Rosecrans to the position; his
+enemies, that Rosecrans first out-generaled him and then laid himself
+open to destruction, while Bragg took no advantage of the situation.
+
+However this may be, we know that on the morning of the 19th September,
+'63, the battle of Chickamauga was commenced by the enemy in a series
+of obstinate division engagements, rather than in a general battle;
+Bragg's object being to gain the Chattanooga road in the enemy's rear,
+and his to prevent it. The fighting was heavy, stubborn and fierce, and
+its brunt was borne by Walker, Hood and Cleburne. Night fell on an
+undecided field, where neither had advantage; and the enemy perhaps had
+suffered more heavily than we.
+
+All that night he worked hard to strengthen his position; and our
+attack--which was to have commenced just at dawn--was delayed from some
+misapprehension of orders. At length Breckinridge and Cleburne opened
+the fight, and then it raged with desperate, bloody obstinacy, until
+late afternoon. At that time the Confederate right had been repulsed;
+but Longstreet's left had driven the enemy before it. Then the whole
+southern line reformed; moving with steady, resistless sweep upon the
+confident enemy. He fought obstinately--wavered--rallied--then broke
+again and fled toward Chattanooga. The rout was complete and the enemy
+so demoralized that Longstreet--feeling that he could be crushed while
+panic-struck--ordered Wheeler to intercept his flight. It was stated
+that Longstreet's order was countermanded by General Bragg;
+but--whatever the reason--there was no pursuit!
+
+The fruits of the hard-won victory were 8,000 prisoners, 50 pieces of
+artillery, near 20,000 muskets--_plus_ a loss of life barren of
+results. For, instead of crushing the enemy and completely relieving
+the state and the Georgia frontier, the failure to press Rosecrans at
+the moment left him free communication with his rear and full time to
+recuperate. Instead of pressing on, General Bragg took position on
+Missionary Ridge; and criticism of the hour declared that he thus
+invested the Federals in the town, which--by a rapid advance--might
+already have been his, without a fight.
+
+It is neither the intent, nor within the scope of these papers--even
+did their author possess the ability for it--to enter into detailed
+criticism of military events; far less to reopen those acrimonious
+partisanships, so bootless at the time and worse than useless now. But,
+to comprehend the state of public feeling at the South, it is essential
+to have the plain data, upon which it was based; and to have plainly
+stated the causes to which popular opinion ascribed certain results.
+
+After Chickamauga, there was very general--and seemingly not
+causeless--discontent. The eternal policy of massing great armies, at
+any sacrifice; fighting terrible battles; and then failing to close the
+grasp upon their fruits--apparently already in hand--had worn public
+patience so threadbare, that it refused to regard Chickamauga as
+anything more than another of those aimless killings, which had so
+often drenched the West, to no avail.
+
+Strong and open expression was made of the popular wish for General
+Bragg's removal; but Mr. Davis refused--as ever--to hear the people's
+voice, in a matter of policy. He retained General Bragg, and the people
+held him responsible for what they claimed was the result--Lookout
+Mountain!
+
+_Fas est ab hoste doceri._ Public clamor at the North declared that
+loss of command should reward Rosecrans for loss of the battle; and, in
+mid-October, he was superseded by General Grant.
+
+Like all popular heroes of the war, Grant had become noted, rather
+through hard-hitting than strategic combination. His zenith was mounted
+on the capture of Vicksburg; a project which northern generals
+denounced as bad soldiership and possible of success, only through an
+enemy's weakness. At this time, he was certainly not in high estimation
+of his own army, because of dogged disregard of loss in useless
+assaults; and it will be recalled that General McClernand was
+court-martialed for his declaration that he "could not be expected to
+furnish brains for the whole army!" The estimate of Grant's compeers is
+not refuted by any evidence in the War Department that, from Shiloh to
+Appomattox, he ever made one combination stamped by mark of any
+soldiership, higher than courage and bull-dog tenacity. Even scouting
+the generally-accepted idea, in the army of Vicksburg and later in that
+of Chattanooga--that McPherson provided plans and details of his
+campaigns; and dismissing McClernand's costly taunt as mere
+epigram--this was the accepted estimate of General Grant's tactical
+power.
+
+But he inaugurated his command at Chattanooga with boldness and vigor.
+He concentrated 25,000 troops in the town; opened his communications;
+and then--to prevent any possible movement flanking him out of
+them--boldly took the initiative.
+
+Meantime, Longstreet had been detached by General Bragg, for that
+badly-provided, badly-digested and wholly ill-starred expedition to
+Knoxville; one which seemed to prove that the history of misfortune was
+ever to repeat itself, in impracticable diversions at precisely the
+wrong time. For, even had this corps not been badly equipped and
+rationed, while almost wholly lacking in transportation, it certainly
+depleted a daily-weakening army, in the face of one already double its
+numbers and daily increasing.
+
+On November 18th--spite of management that forced him to subsist on
+precarious captures--Longstreet reached the enemy's advanced lines, at
+Knoxville; drove him into the city and completely isolated him from
+communication. Capitulation was a mere matter of time; but disastrous
+news from the main army drove the Confederate to the alternative of
+assault, or retreat. Choosing the former, he made it with the same
+desperate gallantry displayed at Gettysburg, or Corinth; illustrated by
+brilliant, but unavailing, personal prowess. The strength of the
+enemy's works--and openness of approach, with wire netting interlaced
+among the stumps of the new clearing, was too much for the southern
+soldiers. Several times they reached the works, fighting hand-to-hand;
+but finally Longstreet fell back, in good order and carrying his
+subsistence. He chose his own line of retreat, too; and with such good
+judgment as to be within reach of any new combination of Bragg--from
+whom he was now cut off--or, failing that, to keep his rear open
+through Virginia, to Lee's army.
+
+Meantime, Grant massed troops in Chattanooga, sufficient in his judgment
+to crush Bragg; and, learning of the latter's detachment of Longstreet's
+corps, determined to strike early and hard. On the 25th he attacked with
+his whole force, in two grand columns under Thomas, Sherman and Hooker.
+The little southern army of less than forty thousand was judiciously
+posted; having advantage of being attacked. The terrible shock of the
+double attack was successfully repulsed on the right by Hardee, on the
+left by Buckner. Broken, reeling--shattered--he was hurled back, only
+to form again with splendid courage. Once more checked and driven back,
+after desperate fighting on both sides, the Federals made a third advance
+with steady, dogged valor. Then constancy was rewarded; they broke the
+Confederate center; swung it in disorder upon the wings; and, holding
+the ground so hotly won, had the key to the position.
+
+Still the day was not wholly lost to the South, had her men not given
+way to causeless panic. Left and right followed center--lost all order
+and fell back almost in flight. Then the scattered and demoralized army
+was saved from utter ruin, only by the admirable manner in which
+Cleburne covered that rout-like retreat, day after day; finally beating
+back Thomas' advance so heavily that pursuit was abandoned.
+
+Missionary Ridge cost the South near 8,000 men; all the Chickamauga
+artillery and more; and the coveted key-position to the situation. But
+it cost, besides, what could even less be spared; some slight abatement
+in the popular confidence in our troops, under all trials heretofore.
+Reasoning from their dislike to General Bragg, people and press
+declared that the men had been badly handled through the whole
+campaign; yet--so inured were they to the ragged boys fighting
+successfully both the enemy and our own errors--there came general bad
+augury from the panic of Missionary Ridge.
+
+Mr. Davis had visited Bragg's army, after the howl that went up on his
+failure to press Rosecrans. On his return, the President appeared
+satisfied and hopeful; he authorized statement that the delay after
+Chickamauga was simply strategic; and the impression went abroad that
+Bragg and he had affected combinations now, which would leave Grant
+only the choice between retreat and destruction.
+
+If these tactics meant the detaching of Longstreet--said thoughtful
+critics--then are combination and suicide convertible terms!
+
+Neither was public feeling much cheered by the aspect of the war in
+Virginia. Lee and Meade coquetted for position, without definite
+result; the former--weakened by Longstreet's absence--striving to slip
+between Meade and Washington; the latter aiming to flank and mass
+behind Lee, on one of the three favorite routes to Richmond. The fall
+and winter wore away with these desultory movements; producing many a
+sharp skirmish, but nothing more resultful. These offered _motif_ for
+display of dash and military tact on both sides; that at Kelly's Ford,
+on the Rapidan--where the Federals caught the Confederates
+unprepared--showing the hardest hitting with advantage on the Union
+side. The compliment was exchanged, by a decisive southern success at
+Germania Ford; but the resultless fighting dispirited and demoralized
+the people, while it only harassed and weakened the army. Both looked
+to the great shock to come; forces for which were gathering, perhaps
+unseen and unheard, yet felt by that morbid prescience which comes in
+the supreme crises of life.
+
+The trans-Mississippi was now absolutely cut off from participation
+in the action of the eastern Confederacy; almost equally so from
+communication with it. Still that section held its own, in the warfare
+peculiar to her people and their situation. Quick concentrations;
+sharp, bloody fights--skirmishes in extent, but battles in exhibition
+of pluck and endurance--were of constant occurrence. Kirby Smith--become
+almost a dictator through failure of communication--administered his
+department with skill, judgment and moderation. Husbanding his internal
+resources, he even established--in the few accessible ports, defiant of
+blockade--a system of foreign supply; and "Kirby Smithdom"--as it came
+to be called--was, at this time, the best provisioned and prepared of
+the torn and stricken sections of the Confederacy.
+
+Note has been made of the improvement of Federal cavalry; and of their
+raids, that struck terror and dismay among the people. During the
+winter of '63-'64, Averill penetrated the heart of Virginia, scattering
+destruction in his path; and, though he retired before cavalry sent to
+pursue him--he even shot his horses as they gave out, in the forced
+flight--his expedition had accomplished its object. It had proved that
+no point of harassed territory was safe from Federal devastation; that
+the overtaxed and waning strength of the South was insufficient to
+protect them now!
+
+Gradually--very gradually--this blight of doubt and dissatisfaction
+began to affect the army; and--while it was no longer possible to fill
+their places by new levies--some of the men already at the front began
+to skulk, and even to desert.
+
+Though still uncondoned, the crime of these was roughly urged upon
+them; for imagination brought to the ears of all, the shriek of the
+distant wife, insulted by the light of her burning roof and turned
+starving and half-clothed, into the snowy midnight! And all the more
+honor was it to the steadfast that they held out--dogged but
+willing--to the bitter end; fighting as man had not fought before--not
+only against their enemy--not only against their own natural
+impulses--but against hope, as well!
+
+For the mass of that grand, tattered and worn army never faltered; and
+only their enduring patriotism--backed as it was by selfless energy of
+their home people--availed to make up for the lost opportunities of the
+Government!
+
+In Congress was vacillation, discord, vacuity; while the people were
+goaded to the absurd charge, that some of its members were traitors!
+But the great diplomat has graven the truth, that an error may be worse
+than a crime; and the errors of the Confederate Congress--from _alpha_
+to _omega_--were born of weakness and feeble grasp on the prompt
+occasions of a great strife, like this which so submerged their
+littleness.
+
+It is in some sort at the door of Congress that the head of the
+government, harassed by overwork, distracted by diverse trifles--each
+one too vital to entrust to feeble subordinates; buffeted by the
+gathering surge without and dragged down by the angry undertow within,
+lost his influence, and with it his power to save!
+
+The beginning of the end had come upon the South. Her stoutest and
+bravest hearts still,
+
+    "Like muffled drums, were beating
+    Funeral marches to the grave!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+THE UPPER AND NETHER MILLSTONES.
+
+
+From the earliest moment General Grant assumed command in the West, the
+old idea of bisecting the Confederacy seems to have monopolized his
+mind. The oft-tried theory of "drilling the heart of the Rebellion"--by
+cutting through to the Atlantic seaboard--had never been lost sight of,
+but in Grant's hands it was to be given practical power and direction.
+
+To effect that object, it was essential to make North Georgia the
+objective point; and North Georgia--now as ever--offered a stubborn and
+well-nigh insurmountable barrier. But the northern War Department was
+now fully impressed with the importance of crushing the spine of the
+Confederacy; and the fact was as clearly realized in the North, as in
+the South, that the vital cord of Confederate being ran from Atlanta to
+Richmond! Therefore, every facility of men and material was furnished
+the commander, who at that moment stood out--in reflected lights from
+Vicksburg and Missionary Ridge--as the military oracle of the North;
+and he was urged to press this design of the campaign to a vigorous and
+speedy issue.
+
+During the winter of 1863-64, General Grant incubated his grand scheme,
+and with the month of February brought forth a quadruple brood of
+ridiculous mice.
+
+His plan--in itself a good and sound one--was to secure a permanent
+base nearer than the Mississippi. To accomplish this he must first
+secure Mobile, as a water base, and connect that with some defensible
+point inland. At the same time that this attempt was made--and while
+the troops guarding the passway into Georgia might be diverted--Thomas,
+commanding the Chattanooga lines, was to advance against that point.
+
+The plan was undoubtedly sound, but the general's want of balance
+caused him to overweight it, until its own ponderousness was its
+destruction. On the 1st of February, Sherman, with a splendidly-appointed
+force of 35,000 infantry, and corresponding cavalry and artillery,
+marched out of Vicksburg; to penetrate to Mobile, or some other point
+more accessible, on the line of the proposed new base. Simultaneously a
+heavy force approached the city from New Orleans; Smith and Grierson,
+with a strong body of cavalry, penetrated Northern Mississippi; and
+Thomas made his demonstration referred to.
+
+Any candid critic will see that four converging columns, to be
+effective, should never have operated so far away from their point of
+convergence, and so far separated from each other. The enterprise was
+gigantic; but its awkwardness equaled its strength, and its own weight
+broke its back.
+
+Sherman, harassed by cavalry and skirmishers--advanced in solid column;
+while Polk, with his merely nominal force, was unable to meet him. But
+the latter fell back in good order; secured his supplies, and so
+retarded his stronger adversary, that he saved all the rolling-stock of
+the railroads. When he evacuated Meridian, that lately busy railroad
+center was left a worthless prize to the captor.
+
+Meantime Forrest had harassed the cavalry force of Smith and Grierson,
+with not one-fourth their numbers; badly provided and badly mounted.
+Yet he managed to inflict heavy loss and retard the enemy's march; but
+finally--unable to wait the junction of S. D. Lee, to give the battle
+he felt essential--Forrest, on the 20th February, faced the Federal
+squadrons. Confident of an easy victory over the ragged handful of
+dismounted skirmishers, the picked cavalry dashed gaily on. Charge
+after charge was received only to be broken--and Forrest was soon in
+full pursuit of the whipped and demoralized columns. Only once they
+turned, were heavily repulsed, and then continued their way to Memphis.
+
+This check of his co-operating column and the utter fruitlessness of
+his own march, induced a sudden change of Sherman's intent. He fell
+rapidly back to Vicksburg; his army perhaps more worn, broken and
+demoralized by the desultory attentions of ours, than it would have
+been by a regular defeat.
+
+Meantime the New Orleans-Pensacola expedition had danced on and off
+Mobile without result. Thomas had been so heavily repulsed on the 25th,
+that he hastily withdrew to his lines at Chickamauga--and the great
+campaign of General Grant had resulted in as insignificant a fizz as
+any costly piece of fireworks the war produced.
+
+On the contrary, history will give just meed to Forrest, Lee and Polk
+for their efficient use of the handfuls of ill-provided men, with whom
+alone they could oppose separate and organized armies. They saved
+Alabama and Georgia--and so, for the time, saved the Confederacy. There
+could be no doubt that the sole safety of the invading columns was
+their numerical weakness. General Grant's practice of a perfectly sound
+theory was clearly a gross blunder; and had Polk been in command of two
+divisions more--had Lee been able to swoop where he only hovered--or
+had Forrest's ragged boys been only doubled in number--the story told
+in Vicksburg would have been even less flattering to the strategic
+ability of the commander.
+
+As it was, he had simply made a bad failure, and given the South two
+months' respite from the crushing pressure he was yet to apply. For the
+pet scheme of the North was but foiled--not ruined; and her whole power
+sang but the one refrain--_Delenda est Atlanta!_
+
+And those two months could not be utilized to much effect by the South.
+Worn in resources, supplies--in everything but patient endurance, she
+still came forth from the dark doubts the winter had raised, hopeful,
+if not confident; calm, if conscious of the portentous clouds lowering
+upon her horizon.
+
+Meanwhile, Grant, elevated to a lieutenant-generalcy, had been
+transferred to the Potomac frontier; and men, money, supplies--without
+stint or limit--had been placed at his disposal.
+
+On the 1st February, Mr. Lincoln had called for 500,000 men; and on the
+14th March for 200,000 more!
+
+General Grant, himself, testified to the absolute control given him, in
+a letter to Mr. Lincoln, under date of 1st May, '64--from Culpeper C.
+H., which concludes: "I have been astonished at the readiness with
+which everything asked for has been granted without any explanation
+being asked. Should my success be less than I desire and expect, the
+least I can say is, that the fault is not with you."
+
+With these unlimited resources, he was given almost unlimited power;
+and the jubilant North crowed as loudly as it had before Manassas, the
+Seven Days, or Fredericksburg.
+
+In Richmond all was quiet. The Government had done all it could, and
+the people had responded with a generous unanimity that ignored all
+points of variance between it and them. All the supplies that could be
+collected and forwarded, under the very imperfect systems, were sent to
+the armies; all the arms that could be made, altered or repaired, were
+got ready; and every man not absolutely needed elsewhere--with the rare
+exceptions of influence and favoritism openly defying the law--was
+already at the front.
+
+And seeing that all was done as well as might be, the Capital
+waited--not with the buoyant hopefulness of the past--but with patient
+and purposeful resolve.
+
+And the ceaseless clang of preparation, cut by the ceaseless yell of
+anticipated triumph, still echoed over the Potomac--ever nearer and
+ever louder. Then, by way of interlude, on the 28th March, came the
+notorious Dahlgren raid. Though Kilpatrick was demoralized and driven
+back by the reserves in the gunless works; though Custar's men retired
+before the furloughed artillerists and home guards; and though
+Dahlgren's picked cavalry were whipped in the open field by one-fourth
+their number of Richmond clerks and artisans!--boys and old men who had
+never before been under fire--still the object of that raid remains a
+blot even upon the page of this uncivilized warfare. It were useless to
+enter into details of facts so well and clearly proved. That the orders
+of Dahlgren's men were to release the prisoners, burn, destroy and
+murder, the papers found on his dead body showed in plainest terms.
+
+No wonder, then, that many in Richmond drew comfort from soothing
+belief in special Providence, when three trained columns of picked
+cavalry were turned back in disgraceful flight, by a handful of
+invalids, old men and boys!
+
+The feeling in Richmond against the raiders was bitter and universal.
+Little vindictive, in general, the people clamored that arson and
+murder--as set forth in Dahlgren's orders--merited more serious
+punishment than temporary detention and highflown denunciation. The
+action of the Government in refusing summary vengeance on the
+cavalrymen captured, was indubitably just and proper. Whatever their
+object, and whatever their orders, they were captured in arms and were
+but prisoners of war; and, besides, they had not really intended more
+than dozens of other raiders had actually accomplished on a smaller
+scale.
+
+But the people would not see this. They murmured loudly against the
+weakness of not making these men an example. And more than one of the
+papers used this as the handle for violent abuse of the Government and
+of its chief.
+
+At last all preparations were complete; and the northern army--as
+perfect in equipment, drill and discipline as if it had never been
+defeated--came down to the Rapidan.
+
+Grant divided his army into three corps, under Hancock, Warren and
+Sedgwick; and on the 5th May, his advance crossed the river, only to
+find Lee quietly seated in his path. Then commenced that series of
+battles, unparalleled for bloody sacrifice of men and obstinacy of
+leader--a series of battles that should have written General Grant the
+poorest strategist who had yet inscribed his name on the long roll of
+reverses. And yet, by a strange fatality, they resulted in making him a
+hero to the unthinking masses of his countrymen.
+
+Lee's right rested on the Orange road; and an attempt, after the
+crossing, to turn it, was obstinately repulsed during the entire day,
+by Heth and Wilcox. During the night Hancock's corps crossed the river,
+and next morning received a fierce assault along his whole line. The
+fighting was fierce and obstinate on both sides; beating back the right
+and left of Hancock's line, while sharply repulsed on the center
+(Warren's). Still his loss was far heavier than ours, and the result of
+the battles of the Wilderness was to put some 23,000 of Grant's men
+_hors de combat_; to check him and to force a change of plan at the
+very threshold of his "open door to Richmond." For next day (7th May)
+he moved toward Fredericksburg railroad, in a blind groping to flank
+Lee.
+
+It is curious to note the different feeling in Washington and Richmond
+on receipt of the news. In the North--where the actual truth did not
+reach--there was wild exultation. The battles of the Wilderness were
+accounted a great victory; Lee was demoralized and would be swept from
+the path of the conquering hero; Grant had at last really found the
+"open door!" In Richmond there was a calm and thankful feeling that the
+first clinch of the deadly tug had resulted in advantage. Waning
+confidence in the valor of men, and discretion of the general, was
+strengthened, and a somewhat hopeful spirit began to be infused into
+the people. Still they felt there would be a deadlier strain this time
+than ever before, and that the fresh and increasing thousands of the
+North could be met but by a steadily diminishing few--dauntless,
+tireless and true--but still how weak! Yet there was no _give_ to
+the southern spirit, and--as ever in times of deadliest strain and
+peril--it seemed to rise more buoyant from the pressure.
+
+Next came the news of those fearful fights at Spottsylvania, on the 8th
+and 9th--in which the enemy lost three to our one--preceding the great
+battle of the 12th May. By a rapid and combined attack the enemy broke
+Lee's line, captured a salient with Generals Ed Johnson and George H.
+Stewart and part of their commands, and threatened, for the time, to
+cut his army in two. But Longstreet and Hill sent in division after
+division from the right and left, and the fight became general and
+desperate along the broken salient. The Yankees fought with obstinacy
+and furious pluck. Charge after charge was broken and hurled back. On
+they came again--ever to the shambles! Night fell on a field piled
+thick with bodies of the attacking force; in front of the broken
+salient was a perfect charnel-house!
+
+By his own confession, Grant drove into the jaws of death at Spottsylvania
+_over 27,000 men_! But his object was, for the second time, utterly
+frustrated; and again he turned to the left--still dogged and
+obstinate--still seeking to flank Lee.
+
+On the 14th, Grant was again repulsed so sharply that his advance
+withdrew; and then the "greatest strategist since Napoleon" struck out
+still for his cherished left; and, leaving "the open door," passed down
+the Valley of the Rappahannock.
+
+Lee's calm sagacity foresaw the enemy's course, and on the 23d Grant
+met him face to face, in a strong position near the North Anna.
+Blundering upon Lee's lines, throwing his men blindly against works
+that were proved invincible, he was heavily repulsed in two
+attacks--with aggregate loss amounting to a bloody battle. Failing in
+the second attack (on the 25th) Grant swung off--still to the left--and
+crossing the Pamunkey two days later, took up strong position near Cold
+Harbor on the last day of May.
+
+Lee also moved down to face Grant, throwing his works up on a slight
+curve extending from Atlee's, on the Central Railroad, across the old
+Cold Harbor field--averaging some nine miles from Richmond. Our general
+was satisfied with the results of the campaign thus far; the army was
+buoyant and confident, and the people were more reliant than they had
+been since Grant had crossed the Rapidan. They felt that the nearness
+of his army to Richmond in no sense argued its entrance into her
+coveted defenses; and memories of Seven Pines, and of that other Cold
+Harbor, arose to comfort them.
+
+In the North, great was the jubilee. It was asserted that Grant could
+now crush Lee and capture his stronghold at a single blow; that the
+present position was only the result of his splendid strategy and
+matchless daring; and the vapid boast, "I will fight it out on this
+line if it takes all summer"--actually uttered while he was blindly
+groping his way, by the left, to the Pamunkey!--was swallowed whole by
+the credulous masses of the North. They actually believed that Grant's
+position was one of choice, not of necessity; and that Lee's movement
+to cover Richmond from his erratic advance--though it ever presented an
+unbroken front to him, and frequently drove him back with heavy
+loss--was still a retreat!
+
+Both sides can look now calmly and critically at this campaign--seemingly
+without a fixed plan, and really so hideously costly in blood. When
+Grant crossed the Rapidan, he could have had no other intention than to
+sweep Lee from his front; and either by a crushing victory, or a forced
+retreat, drive him toward Richmond. Failing signally at the Wilderness,
+he abandoned this original plan and took up the Fredericksburg line.
+Here again the disastrous days of Spottsylvania foiled him completely;
+and he struck for the Tappahannock and Fort Royal line. Lee's emphatic
+repulse of his movement on the North Anna again sent Grant across the
+Pamunkey; and _into the very tracks of McClellan two years
+before_!
+
+But there was one vast difference. McClellan had reached this base with
+no loss. Grant, with all McClellan's experience to teach him, had not
+reached this point at a cost of less than 70,000 men!
+
+Had he embarked his troops in transports and sailed up the river, Grant
+might have landed his army at the White House in twenty-four hours; and
+that without the firing of a shot. But he had chosen a route that was
+to prove him not only the greatest strategist of the age, but the most
+successful as well. The difference of the two was simply this: he took
+twenty-six days instead of one; he fought nine bloody engagements
+instead of none; he made four separate changes in his digested plan of
+advance; and he lost 70,000 men to gain a position a condemned general
+had occupied two years before without a skirmish!
+
+But the people of the North did not see this. They were only allowed
+partial reports of losses and changes of plan; they were given
+exaggerated statements of the damage done to Lee and of his dire
+strait; and the fact of Grant's proximity to the Rebel Capital was made
+the signal for undue and premature rejoicing. He was already
+universally declared the captor of Richmond, by a people willing to
+accept a fact with no thought of its cost; to accept a result for the
+causes that produced it.
+
+But Grant was now in a position when he could not afford to await the
+slow course of siege operations. He could not allow time for the hubbub
+at the North to die away and reflection to take its place. Blood to him
+was no thicker than water; and he must vindicate the boasts of his
+blind admirers--cost thousands of lives though it might. Once more he
+marshaled his re-enforced ranks, only to hurl them into the jaws of
+death. For though worn away by the fearful friction of numbers--melted
+slowly in the fiery furnace of battle--the little Confederate force sat
+behind its works, grim, defiant--dangerous as ever!
+
+Could Grant crush out that handful by the pure weight of his fresh
+thousands--could he literally hurl enough flesh and blood against it to
+sweep it before him--then the key of every road to Richmond was in his
+hands! So, on the morning of the 3d of June, Hancock's corps rushed to
+the assault.
+
+Impetuous and fierce, the charge broke Breckinridge's line. Fresh men
+poured in and, for a moment, the works were in the enemy's hands. But
+it was only for a moment. They rallied, relief came--the conflict was
+fierce and close--but it was short. When the smoke rose, Hancock's line
+was broken and retreating. Again and again he rallied it splendidly,
+only to be hurled back each time with deadlier slaughter. On the other
+points Warren and Burnside had been driven back with terrible loss; and
+along the whole southern line the death-dealing volley into the
+retreating ranks rang the joyous notes of victory. Grant had played the
+great stake of his campaign and lost it!
+
+He had lost it completely, and in an incredibly short time. Near 30,000
+men told the horrid story of that ferocious hurling of flesh and blood
+against earthworks. Near one-fifth of his whole force had paid for his
+last great blunder, while the Confederate loss was less than _one-tenth_
+his own!
+
+Even McClellan's line had failed the sledge-hammer strategist, and
+nothing was left but to transfer his army to the south side of the
+James. Lingering with dogged pertinacity on his slow retreat--turning
+at every road leading to the prize he yearned for, only to be beaten
+back--Grant finally crossed the river with his whole force on the 13th
+of June.
+
+The great campaign was over. It had been utterly foiled at every point;
+had been four times turned into a new channel only to be more signally
+broken; and had ended in a bloody and decisive defeat that left Grant
+no alternative but to give up his entire plan and try a new one on a
+totally different line. For the southern arms it had been one unbroken
+success from the Rapidan to Cold Harbor; for though sometimes badly
+hurt, the Confederates had never once been driven from an important
+position; had never once failed to turn the enemy from his chosen line
+of advance--and had disabled at the least calculation 120,000 of his
+men at the cost of less than 17,000 of their own!
+
+Such was the southern view, at the moment, of this campaign of
+invasion; as unparalleled in the history of war, as was that of
+Stonewall Jackson in the Valley. Such is the view of southern thinkers,
+to-day; and it is backed by the clearest judgment and calmest criticism
+of the North.
+
+That success was made the test of merit; that attrition at last wore
+away unre-enforced resistance; that highest honors in life, and
+national sorrow in death, were rewards of a man--truly great in many
+regards, if justly measured; all these are no proof that General Grant
+was either a strategist, or a thinker; no denial that his Rapidan
+campaign--equally in its planning and its carrying out--was a bald and
+needlessly-bloody failure!
+
+And, realizing this at the supreme moment, can it be wondered that the
+people of Richmond, as well as the victorious little army, grew hopeful
+once more? Is it strange that--mingled with thanksgivings for
+deliverance, unremitting care of the precious wounded, and sorrow for
+the gallant dead of many a Virginia home--there rose a solemn
+joyousness over the result, that crowned the toil, the travail and the
+loss?
+
+And so the South, unrefreshed but steadfast, girded her loins for the
+new wrestle with the foe, now felt to be implacable!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+"THE LAND OF DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH."
+
+
+It is essential to a clear understanding of the events, directly
+preceding the fall of the Confederacy, to pause here and glance at the
+means with which that result was so long delayed, but at last so fully
+accomplished.
+
+From official northern sources, we learn that General Grant crossed the
+Rapidan with three corps, averaging over 47,000 men. Therefore, he must
+have fought the battles of the Wilderness with at least 140,000 men. At
+that time the total strength of General Lee's morning report did not
+show 46,000 men for duty. Between the Wilderness and Spottsylvania,
+Grant was re-enforced to the extent of near 48,000 picked men; and
+again at Cold Harbor with near 45,000 more. Northern figures admit an
+aggregate of 97,000 _re-enforcement_ between the Rapidan and the James!
+In that time, Lee, by the junction of Breckinridge and all the
+fragments of brigades he could collect, received less than 16,000
+re-enforcement; and even the junction with Beauregard scarcely swelled
+his total additions over 20,000.
+
+Grant's army, too, was composed of the picked veterans of the
+North--for his Government had accepted large numbers of hundred-day men
+for local and garrison duty, that all the seasoned troops might be sent
+him. Yet with an aggregate force of 234,000 men, opposed to a total of
+less than 63,000, General Grant failed signally in the plan, or plans
+of his campaign--losing in twenty-six days, and nine heavy fights and
+several skirmishes, _seven men for one of General Lee's_!
+
+Can any candid thinker analyze these results and then believe Grant a
+strategist--a great soldier--anything but a pertinacious fighter? Can
+one realize that anything but most obstinate bungling could have swung
+such an army round in a complete circle--at a loss of over one-half of
+its numbers--to a point it could have reached in twenty-four hours,
+without any loss whatever? For the soldiers of the North, in this
+disastrous series of blunders, fought with constancy and courage.
+Beaten day after day by unfailing troops in strong works, they ever
+came again straight at those impregnable positions, against which
+obstinate stolidity, or blind rage for blood, drove them to the
+slaughter. Hancock's men especially seemed to catch inspiration from
+their chivalric leader. Broken and beaten at the Wilderness--decimated
+at Spottsylvania, they still were first in the deadly hail of Cold
+Harbor--breaking our line and holding it for a moment. Sedgwick and
+Warren, too--though the victim of unjust prejudice, if not of
+conspiracy--managed their corps with signal ability, in those ceaseless
+killings into which Grant's "strategy" sent them.
+
+Nor was the immense superiority of numbers already shown, all. For this
+main advance--like every other of General Grant's--had co-operating
+columns all around it. Add to the men under his immediate command,
+those of the adjunct forces under his inspiration--Butler, 35,000,
+Hunter, 28,000 and Sigel, 10,000--and there foots up a grand total of
+307,000 men!
+
+We may, therefore, consider that General Lee, in the summer campaign of
+1864, kept at bay and nullified the attack of 307,000 men with scarcely
+one-fifth their number; not exceeding 63,000![1]
+
+      [1] Some time after the notes were made, from which these figures
+      are condensed, two articles on Grant's campaign appeared in
+      print--one in the New York "_World_," the other, by Mr. Hugh
+      Pleasants, in "_The Land We Love_" magazine. Writing from
+      diametrically opposite standpoints, with data gathered from
+      opposing sources, Mr. Pleasants and the "_World_" very nearly
+      agree in their figuring; and it was gratifying to this author to
+      find that both corroborated the above estimates to within very
+      inconsiderable numbers. Later historical papers have not
+      materially changed them; save, perhaps, some southern claims
+      still further to reduce Lee's army.
+
+While Grant was engaged in his pertinacious failures to flank Lee,
+General Sheridan--whose fame as a cavalry leader was already in the
+mouths of men in such pet names as "Little Phil" and "Cavalry
+Sheridan"--made a raid of considerable proportions toward Richmond.
+Flanking Lee upon the right, he proceeded over the North and South
+Anna, damaging the railroads at Beaver Dam and Ashland stations. Thence
+he moved toward Richmond, but was met at Yellow Tavern by General
+Stuart with a small body of his cavalry and a hastily-collected force
+of infantry. A sharp engagement resulted in forcing the enemy off; when
+he passed down the James to Turkey Island, where he joined Butler's
+forces.
+
+But the fight had one result far more serious to the South--the death
+of General J. E. B. Stuart--the gallant and popular leader of
+Confederate cavalry; so ill to be spared in those days of watchful
+suspense to come, when General Lee keenly felt the loss of "the eyes of
+the army."
+
+During the whole fight the sharp and continuous rattle of carbines,
+broken by the clear boom of field artillery, was distinctly heard in
+Richmond; and her defenseless women were long uncertain what the result
+would be. They knew nothing of the force that was attacking, nor of
+that which was defending their homes; every man was away save the aged
+and maimed--and the tortures of doubt and suspense were added to the
+accustomed strain of watching the end of the fight. When the news came
+there was deep thankfulness; but it was solemn and shadowed from the
+sorrow that craped the victory.
+
+Meantime, General Sigel had threatened the Valley with a heavy force;
+but, in mid-May he had been met by General Breckinridge and was
+defeated with such loss of men and munitions, that he retreated
+precipitately across the Shenandoah. The co-operation of Sigel was
+virtually at an end.
+
+But the more important co-operation had been equally unsuccessful.
+Simultaneously with Grant's passage of the Rapidan, General Butler,
+with an army of 35,000 men and a fleet of iron-clads, double-enders,
+gunboats and transports sufficient for a war with England, sailed up
+the James. This force was intended to proceed direct to Richmond, or to
+march into undefended Petersburg, as the case might seem best to
+warrant. The land forces disembarked at Bermuda Hundred and, after
+fortifying heavily on the line of Howlett's House, made serious
+demonstrations direct on Drewry's Bluff. Butler supposed that, the
+defenses being entirely uncovered by the drain of men for Lee's army,
+he could carry them with ease. In this hope he relied much upon the
+powerful aid of the fleet; but Admiral Lee, ascending in a
+double-ender, lost his pioneer-boat, the "Commodore Jones" and very
+nearly his own flag-ship, by a torpedo, opposite Signal Station. This
+stopped the advance of the fleet, as the river was supposed to be sown
+with torpedoes.
+
+Nowise daunted, General Butler--like the true knight and chivalrous
+leader his entire career proves him to be--drew his line closer round
+the coveted stronghold. But on the 16th of May, Beauregard sallied out
+and struck the hero of New Orleans so suddenly and so sharply that he
+drove him, with heavy loss and utter demoralization, clear from his
+advanced lines to Bermuda Hundred. Only the miscarriage of a part of
+the plan, entrusted to a subordinate general, saved Butler's army from
+complete destruction.
+
+As it was, he there remained "bottled up," until Grant's peculiar
+strategy had swung him round to Petersburg; and then the "bottle-imp"
+was released.
+
+Seeing himself thus foiled on every hand--his magnificent plans utterly
+crushed, and his immense numbers unavailing--Grant struck into new
+combinations. Hunter had already penetrated into West Virginia as far
+as Staunton; and hounding on his men with the savagery of the
+bloodhound, was pushing on for Lynchburg and the railroad lines of
+supply adjacent to it. Grant at once detached Sheridan with a heavy
+force, to operate against the lines from Gordonsville and
+Charlottesville.
+
+Simultaneously he, himself, was to strike a resistless blow at
+Petersburg; and thus with every avenue of supply cut off, the leaguered
+Capital must soon--from very weakness--drop into eager hands stretched
+out to grasp her.
+
+On the 16th and 17th June, there were sharp and heavily-supported
+attacks upon portions of the Confederate line before Petersburg. The
+expectation evidently was to drive them in by sheer weight; for it was
+known only that part of Lee's forces had crossed the river, and the
+line was one of immense extent--requiring three times his whole force
+to man it effectively.
+
+But, as ever before, General Grant underrated his enemy; and, as ever
+before, his cherished theory of giving six lives for one to gain his
+point failed. Both attacks were heavily repulsed. Still holding to that
+theory, however, Grant attacked the whole Confederate front at dawn of
+the 18th. Driven back with heavy slaughter, the men were again sent in.
+Four times that day they rallied and came well up to the works; and
+four times they were sent back reeling and bleeding. Even Grant's
+obstinacy could not drive them again into certain destruction; and the
+assault on Petersburg had failed utterly, at the cost of 14,000 men for
+the experiment.
+
+On that same day, Hunter was driven back from an assault on Lynchburg,
+and sent in disgraceful rout through West Virginia.
+
+Hampton, too, had done his share as ever in the long war. He had caught
+Sheridan at Trevellian's Station, and compelled him to retreat and
+entirely abandon his part of Grant's new programme; and a little later
+he came upon Kautz and Wilson--in a railroad raid below Petersburg--and
+defeated them disastrously, capturing their trains, artillery and a
+large proportion of their men.
+
+Thus, by July, these rough and repeated lessons had taught even General
+Grant that hammering with flesh and blood upon earthworks was too
+costly; that barn-burning and railroad-tearing cavalry were not
+effectual to reduce the city that had so laughed to scorn his brilliant
+tactics of the left flank!
+
+A more disgusted, if not a wiser man, he sat down and fortified for a
+regular siege; as fully convinced as ever that the blood of the
+soldiers was the seed of the war; as fixed in his theory that he could
+spare seven lives for one and gradually by this fearful "swapping, with
+boot," reduce the capital he had failed to win by soldierly methods or
+skillful combination.
+
+And the southern people felt that was the test to be applied to them
+now. Bayonet and steel, rapine and torch had failed; but now the
+process of _pulverizing_ was to come. "Southern blood!" was General
+Grant's war-cry--"Southern blood by the drop, if it take rivers of
+ours. Southern lives by the score--and we can well pay for them with
+the hundred!"
+
+And, looking the alternative squarely in the face, the southern people
+for the last time girded their loins for the shock; feeling they could
+do what men might and when they could no longer do--they could die!
+
+Once more the tide of battle had rolled away from Richmond; but it
+surged up, redder and rougher, against her sister city. And staunch
+little Petersburg braced herself to meet its advancing waves--ever
+offering to them her dauntless breast and ever riding above them,
+breathless but victorious. Old men with one foot in the grave--boys
+with one foot scarce out of the cradle, stood side by side, with the
+bronzed veterans of Lee's hundred fights. Women sat quiet, the shells
+of Grant's civilized warfare tearing through their houses and through
+the hospitals. And fearless for themselves, they worked steadily on,
+nursing the wounded and the sick; giving from their daily-decreasing
+store with self-forgetfulness; encouraging the weak by their presence
+and their courage.
+
+But not alone the fierce sounds immediately around them claimed the
+attention of the people of the Capital. From North Georgia came the
+hoarse echo of renewed strife; and they felt, in sober truth, more
+immediate anxiety for the result there than at their own doors. Inured
+to danger and made familiar with its near approach, the people of
+Virginia looked calmly forward to the most fearful shock of battle, if
+it was nothing more. They knew the crushing force of Grant's numbers,
+but the danger was tangible and they could see a possible issue out of
+it, through blood and sacrifice. But they knew and felt that Atlanta
+was the back door to Richmond. Let the enemy once enter that and divide
+the spinal column of the Confederacy, and what hope was there! For a
+brief space the maimed and dying body might writhe with final strength;
+the quivering arms strike fierce, spasmodic blows; but no nourishment
+could come--the end must be death--and death from inanition!
+
+The people knew and felt this fully. They were perfectly aware that,
+should Atlanta fall and the enemy penetrate to our rear lines of
+communication, the cause was lost. We might make a fierce resistance
+for the moment; but without supplies, all organized plan must cease.
+And the wildest hope indulged in that event was the possibility of a
+detached and guerrilla warfare that would make the country untenable.
+
+Therefore, every eye was turned toward Dalton, where Johnston's little
+army now was--every ear was strained to catch the first echo of the
+thunder about to roll so ominously among the Georgia mountains.
+
+Upon General Grant's elevation to the chief command, General W. T.
+Sherman had been left in charge in the West. Not discouraged by the
+failure of Grant's quadruple advance, two months before, Sherman
+divided his army--like that operating on the Rapidan--into three corps.
+Thomas, leading the center, or direct advance; Schofield, the left on
+the North-east, and McPherson the right on the South-west--he moved
+upon Dalton, almost simultaneously with Grant's passage of the Rapidan.
+And like Grant, he essayed a flank movement; but with far different
+result.
+
+There was another point of similarity--the great disparity of numbers.
+Sherman could not have had in all, far short of 80,000 men; while
+Johnston's greatest exertions could not collect at Dalton an effective
+force of 35,000. Many of these, too, were local troops and raw levies,
+green and undisciplined; while Sherman's forces were the flower of the
+western army.
+
+Such were the points of similarity; but there was one great difference
+known to the Confederate leaders and people. Sherman would use every
+advantage of strategy and combination, rather than attempt the
+sledge-hammer style of attack developed by Grant. And there was more to
+be dreaded from his quiet and cautious approach--with its accompanying
+care for human life, that would preserve his army--than from any direct
+assault, however vigorous. This was proved at the very outset; for his
+advance on Dalton was a piece of military tact that--unlike Grant's at
+the Wilderness--was founded upon sound calculation. McPherson was
+thrown so far round to the South-west as seriously to threaten
+Johnston's communications; and by the 8th of June, the latter was
+forced to evacuate Dalton and retire down Resaca Valley toward the line
+of the Etowah river.
+
+This movement was accomplished with quiet and perfect ease; keeping
+ever a steady front to the enemy, pressing rapidly on.
+
+Feeling that the fate of the whole cause was now vested in the little
+army left him to defend the great key--Atlanta--Johnston was great
+enough to resist the opportunities for glorious battle; to give up,
+without a struggle--which could only entail resultless waste of
+men--the rich tracts so valuable to us; to offer himself to the
+condemnation of unthinking censure--all to insure the safety of that
+vital organ of Confederate life.
+
+On the 14th June, the enemy pressed heavily against temporary works in
+Resaca Valley and was twice repulsed, with heavy loss. Then Johnston
+turned upon him and gained a decisive advantage--driving him two miles.
+On the two succeeding days, his attempts amounted to scarcely more than
+skirmishes; and on the third our troops resumed, unmolested, their
+retreat along the line of the Etowah. By the end of the month Johnston
+had taken up a strong position, with his center resting upon Kenesaw
+Mountain; while the enemy had thrown up works, at some points nearer
+even than those at Petersburg.
+
+At dawn on the 27th, Sherman attacked along the whole line, directing
+his main strength to Kenesaw Mountain. He was repulsed decisively on
+both flanks and with especial slaughter in the center; losing over
+3,500 men. Next day Cleburne's division defeated McPherson's corps in a
+severe fight, inflicting even heavier loss than it had sustained at
+Kenesaw Mountain. But these fights--while retarding the enemy's advance
+and causing him a loss three times our own--were all nullified by
+Sherman's effective use of that flanking process, so strangely misused
+by his rival in Virginia. Those movements were but those of pawns upon
+the board; while the serious check to Johnston at Dalton--the flank
+movement upon his right--was repeated here. On the 4th of July he was
+flanked out of his mountain fastnesses and was falling back upon
+Atlanta.
+
+There is no stronger proof of the hold General Johnston had upon the
+masses of the people and of their respectful confidence in his great
+ability, than their reception of this news. They had watched his long
+retreat almost without a fight; had seen the enemy penetrate almost to
+the heart of Georgia, occupying rich tracts of our most productive
+land, just ready for the harvest; and finally had heard him thundering
+at the very gates of Atlanta--to enter which they felt were death to
+us. And yet the people never murmured at their general, nor at the army
+he commanded. There was an unshaken conviction that he was doing his
+best; that his best was _the_ best. But the Government had not
+forgotten nor forgiven General Johnston; and for wholly inexplicable
+reasons, he was summarily transferred from his command and replaced by
+General Hood, on the 18th of July.
+
+People could not see the ground for Johnston's removal; for he had
+followed the very same line that had earned General Lee the wildest
+enthusiasm of the people, even while it gave him almost supreme control
+of the military power of the Confederacy. Lee had fallen back to his
+proper base--so had Johnston. The former had faced far greater odds and
+had inflicted far heavier punishment upon the enemy; but the latter had
+contended against strategic ability rather than blind force--against
+human sagacity rather than brute courage. And if Johnston had inflicted
+less damage, his wise abstinence from battle had saved many lives,
+invaluable now; and in the end he had placed his army in almost
+impregnable works around the great prize he was to guard. Foreseeing
+the result of his opponent's strategy, he had nullified it by seeking
+the position into which he would finally have been forced.
+
+So far, the Virginia and the Georgia campaigns had been markedly
+similar in conduct and result. Both armies, driven by overwhelming
+numbers, had drawn their lines around their last strongholds; and there
+kept their enemy at bay. And had General Johnston been allowed to reap
+the reward of his clear foresight and patient abstinence--who can tell
+but the festering Lazarus might yet have risen whole, and defied the
+vast wealth of aggression hurled against it?
+
+The universal and outspoken disgust of the people at the removal of
+Johnston, was in no sense referable to their objection to his
+successor. General Hood had forced their highest admiration, and bought
+their warmest wishes, with his brilliant courageous and his
+freely-offered blood. They knew him to be dauntless, chivalrous and
+beloved by his men; and, even if untried in a great command, they were
+willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. His first movements,
+too--seemingly so brilliant and dashing, compared to the more steady
+but resultful ones of Johnston--produced a thrill of pride and hope
+with all the people, save the thoughtful few, who felt we could not
+afford now to buy glory and victory unless it tended to the one
+result--safety.
+
+On the 20th July Hood assumed the offensive. He struck the enemy's
+right heavily and with success; repeating the blow upon his extreme
+left, on the 22d. The advantage on both days was with the Confederates;
+they drove the enemy from his works, captured several thousand
+prisoners, and killed and wounded over 3,000 men. But there was no
+solid gain in these fights; and, the enemy shifting his line after them
+further to the east, there was another furious battle on the 28th day
+of July.
+
+In this Hood was less successful, losing heavily and gaining little or
+no ground. The results of the fights at Atlanta were briefly these:
+Hood had broken the long and sagacious defensive course; the people
+were perhaps inspirited at the cost of over 4,000 invaluable men; and
+the enemy was taught that we were too weak to drive him from his line,
+or even to make any solid impression on him.
+
+Feeling this--and secure in a line of communication with his
+base--Sherman sat doggedly and grimly down before Atlanta. He felt he
+could wait.
+
+But the end came, before even the Federal leader could have expected.
+After the fights at Atlanta, Hood feared the cutting of his
+communications. He was fearful, lest the system that had forced
+Johnston from Dalton and Kenesaw Mountain might be made available
+against him here; and the very means he had adopted to prevent it
+precipitated the disaster. He divided his forces into two distinct
+armies--sending one, under Lieutenant-General Hardee, to Jonesboro,
+twenty-two miles away!
+
+Sherman, aware of the movement--which had in fact resulted from his
+threatening of Hood's flank--forced his superior numbers wedge-like
+into the gap, and effectually separated the wings. Then he struck in
+detail. Hardee, at Jonesboro, failed to make any impression upon him on
+the 1st of September, while Hood--weakened and unable to check his
+movements on the left--was forced, on the 31st August, to decide upon
+the evacuation of Atlanta!
+
+This fatal movement was accomplished on the evening of the 1st of
+September, without further loss; but the key to the Confederate
+cause--the sole barrier to the onward sweep of Sherman to the
+ocean--was in his hands at last!
+
+There may have been causes operating on General Hood that were not
+known to the people; for the results and their motive was shrouded in
+silence. His dispatch announcing the fall of the most important point
+was very brief; stating in a few lines that Hardee, having failed
+against the enemy at Jonesboro, while he could not oppose his flank
+movement at Atlanta, he had given up that city. Even later--when
+General Hood published his report of the Atlanta campaign--he differs
+in essential points from General Johnston, and neither his theories nor
+their carrying out are made comprehensible to the public.
+
+There was a terrible shock to the people of the South in the fall of
+Atlanta. They knew its importance so fully that its loss was the more
+keenly felt. There came sudden revulsion from the hope that had begun
+once again to throb in the public pulse. The loud murmurs that had
+arisen after other defeats were wanting now; but a sullen and
+increasing gloom seemed to settle over the majority of the people. It
+was as though they were stunned by the violence of the shock and felt
+already its paralyzing influence. It was in vain that a ten days' truce
+was granted by the victorious enemy, during which Mr. Davis visited the
+army and spoke brave words of future victory. The people had now lost
+all faith in Mr. Davis and his methods; and they sullenly refused to
+accept the happy auguries of victory he drew from crushing defeat. Even
+the army itself--while still doggedly determined to strike its hardest
+to the bitter end--began to feel that it was fighting against hope.
+
+And in that ten days' truce there was little chance for those worn and
+wasted battalions to recuperate. There were no fresh men to send to
+their aid; few, indeed, were the supplies that could be forwarded them.
+But they looked into the darkness ahead steadily and calmly; they might
+not see their path in it, but they were ready to march without the
+path. And even as they watched and waited, so at Petersburg and
+Richmond a small but sleepless David watched the grim Goliath,
+stretched in its huge bulk before their gates. Ceaselessly the trains
+flashed back and forth over the iron link between those two cities--now
+Siamese-twinned with a vital bond of endurance and endeavor.
+Petersburg, sitting defiant in her circle of fire, worked grimly,
+ceaselessly--with what hope she might! and Richmond worked for her,
+feeling that every drop of blood she lost was from her own veins as
+well.
+
+And so for many weary months the deadly strain went on; and the twin
+cities--stretched upon the rack--bore the torture as their past
+training had taught the world they must--nobly and well!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+DIES IRAE--DIES ILLA.
+
+
+It is nowise within the scope of these sketches to detail that
+memorable siege of Petersburg, lasting nearly one year. It were
+needless to relate here, how--for more than ten months--that long
+southern line of defense, constantly threatened and almost as
+constantly assailed, was held. Men know now that it was not by
+strength, but by sleepless watch and dogged endurance, that less than
+30,000 worn men--so dotted along works extending near forty miles, that
+at points there was one soldier to every rod of earthwork--held their
+own, even against the earlier onsets. Men now realize why the Federal
+general--failing in every separate effort to buy a key-position, even
+at the cost of six lives for one--was forced to sit down sullenly and
+wait the slow, but sure, process of attrition.
+
+These matters are now stamped upon the minds of readers, on both sides
+of the Potomac. In the North they had voluminous reports of every
+detail; and the cessation of interest elsewhere gave full leisure to
+study them. In the South, 30,000 earnest historians from the trenches
+were sought, each one by eager crowds; and the story of every cannonade
+and skirmish and charge, told in honest but homely words, was burned
+into the memory of intent listeners.
+
+Slowly that summer wore itself away. Steadily that bloody history
+traced itself out; punctuated, now by many a fierce and sudden rush of
+crowding Federals--ever beaten back with frightful loss; again by rare
+sorties from our line, when our leaders saw the chance to strike some
+telling blow.
+
+But spite of care in those leaders and superhuman endurance in the men,
+the southern troops were worn with watching and steadily melting away.
+Close, ceaseless fighting thinned their ranks; there were no more
+men--even the youngest of the land, or its first borns--to take the
+places of the lost veterans. General Grant's words were strictly
+true--"the South had robbed the cradle and the grave!" The boasted army
+of the North, led by her latest-chosen champion and strategist, was
+kept at bay by a skeleton of veterans, barely held together by the
+worn-out sinews and undeveloped muscle of old age and infancy.
+
+Then the fall of Atlanta came!
+
+The people were not to be deceived by platitudes about "strategic
+purposes," or empty nothings about "a campaign to nullify it." They had
+gotten now beyond that; and saw the terrible blow that had been dealt
+them in all its naked strength. They felt that an army that had failed
+to check Sherman, when it was behind strong works, would hardly do so
+in the open field. They felt that he could now at his leisure bore into
+the coveted heart of our territory; that the long-attempted "bisection
+of the rebellion" was accomplished; that further aid, or supplies, from
+that section was impossible. And then the people of Richmond turned
+once more with unfailing pride, but lessening hope, toward the
+decreasing bands that still held their own gates secure. But they saw
+how the deadly strain was telling upon these; that the end was near.
+
+But even now there was no weak yielding--no despairing cry among the
+southern people. They looked at the coming end steadily and
+unflinchingly; and now, for the first time, they began to speculate
+upon the possible loss of their beloved Capital. It was rumored in
+Richmond that General Lee had told the President that the lines were
+longer than he could hold; that the sole hope was to evacuate the town
+and collect the armies at some interior point for a final struggle that
+might yet sever the bonds, ever closing tighter and tighter upon us.
+And the rumor added that Mr. Davis peremptorily and definitely rejected
+this counsel; declaring that he would hold the city, at any cost and
+any risk.
+
+For once--whatever cause they had to credit these reports--the popular
+voice was louder on the side of the unpopular President than on that of
+the idolized general. The tremendous efforts to capture the Capital;
+the superhuman exertions made to defend it in the last four years, _had
+made Richmond the cause_! People argued that if Richmond was lost, the
+State of Virginia was lost, too; that there was no point in North
+Carolina where the army could make a stand, for even that "interior
+line" then became a frontier. Beyond this the people felt the moral
+effect of such a step; and that the army, as such, could never be
+carried out of Virginia. And with the ceaseless discussion of this
+question, came the first yearnings for peace propositions.
+
+To this extremity, the South had been confident and fixed in her views.
+Cheated of her hopes of foreign intervention, she had yet believed her
+ability to work out her own oracle; through blood and toil--even ruin,
+perhaps--but still to force a peace at last. But now the popular voice
+was raised in answer to the vague words of peace that found their way
+over the Potomac. If there be any desire in the North for cessation of
+this strife, said the people, for God's sake let us meet it half way.
+Even the Congress seemed impressed with the necessity of meeting any
+overtures from the North, before it was too late and our dire strait
+should be known there. But it was already too late; and the resultless
+mission of Mr. Stephens to Fortress Monroe proved that the Washington
+Government now saw plainly that it could force upon us the terms it
+made the show of offering.
+
+The failure of this mission, no less than the great mystery in which
+the Government endeavored to wrap it, produced a decided gloom among
+the thinking classes; and it reacted upon the army as well. The
+soldiers now began to lose hope for the first time. They saw they were
+fighting a hydra; for as fast as they lopped off heads in any
+direction, fresh ones sprang up in others. They began, for the first
+time, to feel the contest unequal; and this depressing thought--added
+to the still greater privations following the loss of Georgia--made
+desertion fearfully common, and threatened to destroy, by that cause,
+an army that had withstood every device of the enemy.
+
+And so the fall wore into winter; and the news from General Hood's
+lines only added to the gloom. After the truce of ten days, following
+the fall of Atlanta, Hood had moved around and gotten almost in
+Sherman's rear. For a moment there was great exultation, for it was
+believed he would destroy the enemy's communications and then attack
+him, or force an attack on ground of his own choosing. Great was the
+astonishment and great the disappointment, when Hood moved rapidly to
+Dalton and thence into Alabama, leaving the whole country south of
+Virginia entirely open, defenseless, and at Sherman's mercy.
+
+And, as usual, in moments of general distress, Mr. Davis was blamed for
+the move. He had, it was said, removed Joe Johnston at the very moment
+his patient sagacity was to bear its fruits; he had been in Hood's camp
+and had of course planned this campaign--a wilder and more disastrous
+one than the detachment of Longstreet, for Knoxville. Whosesoever may
+have been the plan, and whatever may have been its ultimate object, it
+failed utterly in diverting Sherman from the swoop for which he had so
+long hovered. For, while the small bulwark of Georgia was removed--and
+sent in Quixotic joust against distant windmills--the threatening
+force, relieved from all restraint, and fearing no want of supplies in
+her fertile fields, pressed down, "Marching thro' Georgia."
+
+Meantime Hood, with no more serious opposition than an occasional
+skirmish, crossed the Tennessee at Florence, about the middle of
+November. The enemy fell back before him, toward Nashville, until it
+seemed as if his intent was to draw Hood further and further away from
+the _real_ point of action--Sherman's advance. On the 30th of November,
+however, Thomas made a stand at Franklin; and then resulted a terrific
+battle, in which the Confederates held the field, with the loss of
+one-third of the army. Six of our generals lay amid their gallant dead
+on that unhappy field; seven more were disabled by wounds, and one was
+a prisoner. The enemy's loss was stated at far less than ours; and he
+retired into Nashville, to which place our army laid siege on the 1st
+of December.
+
+Weakened by the long march and more by the terrible losses of Franklin;
+ill-supplied and half-fed, Hood's army was compelled to rely upon the
+enemy's want of supplies driving him out. On the 15th of December he
+attacked our whole line, so furiously as to break it at every point.
+Hood's defeat was complete; he lost his whole artillery--over fifty
+pieces--most of his ordnance and many of his supply trains. In the
+dreadful retreat that followed, General Forrest's vigorous covering
+alone saved the remnant of that devoted army; and on the 23d of
+January, 1865--when he had brought them once more into temporary
+safety--General Hood issued a farewell order, stating that he was
+relieved at his own request.
+
+Gallant, frank and fearless even in adversity, he did not shirk the
+responsibility of the campaign; declaring, that disastrous and bitter
+as it had been, he had believed it best.
+
+So ended all real resistance in the South and West. The enemy had
+gained the back door to Richmond, had shattered its supports and had
+marched on to the rear of those strongholds that had so long defied his
+power from the sea.
+
+It was but a question of time, when Charleston and Savannah should
+fall; and even the most hopeful could see that Virginia was the only
+soil on which resistance still walked erect.
+
+Meanwhile, the winter was passing in Richmond in most singular gayety.
+Though the hostile lines were so close that the pickets could "chaff"
+each other without raising their voices, still both had learned that
+direct attacks in front were not practicable; and such was the state of
+the roads all around Petersburg, that no movement out of works could be
+attempted. Therefore more active fighting had for the moment ceased;
+numbers of young officers could get to Richmond, for a few days at a
+time; and these came worn and tired from camp and famished for society
+and gayety of some sort. And the younger ladies of Richmond--ready as
+they ever were to aid and comfort the soldier boys with needle, with
+bandage, or with lint--were quite as ready now to do all they could in
+plans for mutual pleasure.
+
+They only felt the strain was for the moment remitted; they recked not
+that it was to come to-morrow for the final crush; and they enjoyed
+to-day with all the recklessness of long restraint.
+
+Parties were of nightly occurrence. Not the brilliant and generous
+festivals of the olden days of Richmond, but joyous and gay assemblages
+of a hundred young people, who danced as though the music of shells had
+never replaced that of the old negro fiddler--who chatted and laughed
+as if there were no to-morrow, with its certain skirmish, and its
+possible blanket for winding-sheet. For the beaux at these gatherings
+were not only the officers on leave from Petersburg; the lines drawn
+close to the city furnished many an acquisition, who would willingly do
+ten miles in and out, on horseback through the slush and snow, for one
+_deux temps_ with "somebody in particular."
+
+And many a brave fellow had ridden direct from the ball-room into the
+fight. I can well recall poor H. now, as he looked when last I saw him
+in life. Ruddy and joyous, with his handsome face one glow of pleasure,
+he vaulted gaily to his saddle under the bright moon at midnight.
+Curbing his restive horse, and waving a kiss to the bright faces
+pressed against the frosty pane, his clear _au revoir!_ echoed through
+the silent street, and he was off.
+
+Next morning a country cart brought his lifeless body down Main street,
+with the small blue mark of a bullet in the middle of the smooth,
+clear, boyish brow. Never leaving his saddle, he had ridden into a
+picket fight, and a chance shot had cut short the life of so much
+promise.
+
+But it is not meant that these parties entailed any waste of those
+supplies, vital alike to citizen and soldier. They were known as
+"Starvations;" and all refreshments whatever were forbidden, save what
+could be drawn from the huge pitcher of "Jeems' River" water,
+surrounded with its varied and many-shaped drinking utensils. Many of
+these, even in the houses of the best provided, were of common blown
+glass, with a greenish tinge that suggested a most bilious condition of
+the blower. The music was furnished by some of the ancient negro
+minstrels--so dear to the juvenile southern heart in days gone by; or
+more frequently by the delicate fingers of some petted and favored
+belle. And never, amid the blare of the best trained bands, the popping
+of champagne, and the clatter of forks over _pate de foies gras_, was
+there more genuine enjoyment and more courtly chivalry to the _beau
+sexe_, than at these primitive soirees.
+
+The "Starvations" were not the only amusements. Amateur theatricals and
+tableaux again became the rage in midwinter; and talent of no
+contemptible grade was displayed on many an impromptu stage. And that
+especial pet horror of supersensitive godliness--the godless German
+cotillion--even forced itself into the gayeties of the winter. Great
+was the wrath of the elect against all amusements of the kind--but
+chiefest among outrages was this graceless German. But despite the
+denunciations, the ridicule, and even the active intervention of one or
+two ministers, the young soldiers and their chosen partners whirled
+away as though they had never heard a slander or a sermon.
+
+I have already endeavored to show how a certain class in Richmond
+deprecated gayety of all kinds two years before. These, of course,
+objected now; and another class still was loud and violent against it.
+But, said the dancers, we do the fighting--we are the ones who are
+killed--and if we don't object, why in the deuce should you? Cooped up
+in camp, with mud and musty bacon for living, and the whistling of
+Minies and whooing of shells for episode, we long for some pleasure
+when we can get off. This is the sole enjoyment we have, and we go back
+better men in every way for it.
+
+This was rather unanswerable argument; and the younger ladies were all
+willing to back it; so _malgre_ long faces and a seeming want of the
+unities, the dancing went on.
+
+We have heard a great deal _post-bellum_ bathos about that strange
+mixture of gay waltzes, and rumble of dead-cart and ambulance; but one
+must have heard the sounds together before he can judge; and no one who
+was not in and of that peculiar, and entirely abnormal, state of
+society, can understand either its construction, or its demands.
+
+But the short spasm of gayety, after all, was only the fitful and
+feverish symptom of the deadly weakness of the body politic. It was
+merely superficial; and under it was a fixed and impenetrable gloom.
+The desertions from the army were assuming fearful proportions, that no
+legislation or executive rigor could diminish; supplies of bare food
+were becoming frightfully scarce, and even the wealthiest began to be
+pinched for necessaries of life; and over all brooded the dread cloud
+of a speedy evacuation of the city.
+
+Every day saw brigades double-quicking back and forth through the
+suburbs; the continuous scream of steam-whistles told of movement, here
+and there; and every indication showed that the numbers of men were
+inadequate to man the vast extent of the lines. As the spring opened,
+this became more and more apparent. There was no general attack, but a
+few brigades would be thrown against some ill-defended work here; and
+almost simultaneously the undefended lines there would have a force
+hurled against them. It almost seemed that the enemy, aware of our
+weakness, was determined to wear out our men by constant action, before
+he struck his heavy blow. How dear the wearied, starving men made these
+partial attacks cost him, already his own reports have told.
+
+March came, and with it, orders to remove all government property that
+could possibly be spared from daily need. First the archives and papers
+went; then the heavier stores, machinery and guns, and supplies not in
+use; then the small reserve of medical stores was sent to Danville, or
+Greensboro. And, at last, the already short supplies of commissary
+stores were lessened by removal--and the people knew their Capital was
+at last to be given up!
+
+The time was not known--some said April, some the first of May; but the
+families of the President and Cabinet had followed the stores; the
+female Department clerks had been removed to Columbia--and there was no
+doubt of the fact. After four years of dire endeavor and unparalleled
+endurance, the Capital of the South was lost!
+
+In their extremity the people said little, but hope left them utterly.
+In the army or out, there were few, indeed--and no Virginians--but
+believed the cause was lost when the army marched away.
+
+Richmond was Virginia--was the cause!
+
+With Sherman already in possession of Charleston and Savannah, and the
+army unable to do aught but retreat sullenly before him--with Virginia
+gone, and the Confederacy narrowed down to North Carolina, a strip of
+Alabama and the trans-Mississippi--what hope was left?
+
+After General Johnston had been relieved at Atlanta, the Department had
+managed, on one reason or another, to shelve him until now. The public
+voice was loudly raised against the injustice done the man they admired
+most of all the bright galaxy of the South; and even Congress woke from
+its stupor long enough to demand for the great soldier a place to use
+his sword. This was in January; but still the government did not
+respond, and it was not until the 23d February that he was restored to
+command. Then--with the shattered remnant of his army, augmented, but
+not strengthened by the fragments of flying garrisons--he could only
+fall back before the victorious progress of that "Great March" he might
+effectually have checked, on its threshold at Atlanta.
+
+Deep gloom--thick darkness that might be felt--settled upon the whole
+people. Hope went out utterly, and despair--mingled with rage and
+anguish as the news from the "Great March" came in--took its place in
+every heart. But in every heart there was bitter sorrow,
+humiliation--but no fear. As Richmond became more and more empty, and
+the time to abandon her drew nearer and nearer, her people made what
+provision they might to meet the enemy they had scorned so long. One
+class and one alone, showed any sign of fear--the human vultures so
+long fattened on the dead and dying--the speculators.
+
+With every preparation long since made for the event--with cellars and
+attics stored with tobacco and other merchandise--with Confederate
+blood-money converted into gold--these Shylocks now shivered in
+anticipation of the coming greenbacks, for abject dread of the
+bluebacks that were to bring them. There is one gleam of satisfaction
+through the gloom of the great fire--it partly purified the city of
+these vermin and the foul nests they had made themselves.
+
+All seemed ready during March, and the people watched every movement,
+listened for every sound, that might indicate actual evacuation. Each
+morning the city rose from its feverish sleep, uncertain whether, or
+not, the army had withdrawn in the stillness of the night.
+
+During all this fitful suspense there was no general fight along the
+lines, and from time to time hope would flicker up, and for the moment
+throw the shadows into shape of a possible victory--a saving blow for
+the storm-racked ship of state, now her decks had been cleared for
+desperate action. Then it would down, down again, lower than before.
+
+With the end of March the enemy made new combinations. His whole
+disjointed attacks had been against the South Side road, the main
+artery of supply and retreat. He had ceased organized attacks on the
+works, and sought only to strike the communications. Now, Sheridan,
+with a formidable force, was sent to Five Forks; and Richmond heard, on
+the first day of April, of desperate fighting between him and Pickett.
+
+Next morning, the 2d April, rose as bright a Sunday as had shone in all
+Richmond that spring. The churches were crowded, and plainly-dressed
+women--most of them in mourning--passed into their pews with pale, sad
+faces, on which grief and anxiety had both set their handwriting. There
+were few men, and most of these came in noisily upon crutches, or pale
+and worn with fever.
+
+It was no holiday gathering of perfumed and bedizened godliness, that
+Sunday in Richmond. Earnest men and women had come to the house of God,
+to ask His protection and His blessing, yet a little longer, for the
+dear ones that very moment battling so hotly for the worshipers.
+
+In the midst of a prayer at Dr. Hoge's church, a courier entered
+softly, and advancing to Mr. Davis, handed him a telegram. Noiselessly,
+and with no show of emotion, Mr. Davis left the church, followed by a
+member of his staff. A moment after another quietly said a few words to
+the minister; and then the quick apprehensions of the congregation were
+aroused. Like an electric shock they felt the truth, even before Dr.
+Hoge stopped the services and informed them that Richmond would be
+evacuated that night; and counseled they had best go home and prepare
+to meet the dreadful to-morrow. The news spread like wildfire. Grant
+had struck that Sunday morning--had forced the lines, and General Lee
+was evacuating Petersburg!
+
+The day of wrath had come.
+
+Hastily the few remaining necessaries of the several departments were
+packed, and sent toward Danville, either by railroad or wagon. Ordnance
+supplies, that could not be moved, were rolled into the canal;
+commissary stores were thrown open, and their hoarded contents
+distributed to the eager crowds. And strange crowds they were. Fragile,
+delicate women staggered under the heavy loads they bore to suffering
+children at home; the pale wife clutched hungrily at the huge ham, or
+the bag of coffee, for the wounded hero, pining at home for such a
+delicacy. Children were there with outstretched hands, crying for what
+they could carry; and hoary-headed men tugged wearily at the barrels of
+pork, flour, or sugar they strove to roll before their weak arms.
+
+Later in the evening, as the excitement increased, fierce crowds of
+skulking men, and coarse, half-drunken women, gathered before the
+stores. Half-starved and desperate, they swore and fought among
+themselves over the spoils they seized. Orders had been given to
+destroy the whisky at once; but, either from lingering tenderness, or
+from the hurry of the movement, they were only partially obeyed.
+
+Now the uncontrolled swarms of men and women--especially the wharf rats
+at Rockett's where the navy storehouses were--seized the liquor and
+became more and more maddened by it. In some places where the barrels
+were stove, the whisky ran in the gutters ankle deep; and here
+half-drunken women, and children even, fought, to dip up the coveted
+fluid in tin pans, buckets, or any vessel available.
+
+Meanwhile, preparation went on rapidly; the President and Cabinet left
+for the South--General Breckinridge, Secretary of War, alone remaining
+to direct the details of evacuation. Everything was ready for the few
+remaining troops to withdraw, leaving the works on the northern side of
+the James unoccupied, before daylight. Then the officer with the
+burning party went his rounds, putting the torch to every armory,
+machine-shop and storehouse belonging to the Government. By midnight
+these had begun to burn briskly; one lurid glare shot upward to the
+sky, from the river; then another and another. The gunboats had been
+fired, and their crews, passing to the shore equipped for camp,
+followed the line of the retreating army up the river bank.
+
+Who, that was in it, will ever forget that bitter night? Husbands
+hastily arranged what plans they might, for the safety of families they
+were forced to leave behind; women crept out into the midnight, to
+conceal the little jewelry, money or silver left them, fearing general
+sack of the city and treachery of even the most trusted negroes. For
+none knew but that a brutal and drunken mob might be let loose upon the
+hated, long-coveted Capital, in their power at last! None knew but that
+the black rule of Butler might be re-enacted--excelled; and women--who
+had sat calm and restful, while the battle of Seven Pines and the roar
+of Seven Days, and the later Cold Harbor, shook their windows--now
+broke down under that dreadful parting with the last defenders of their
+hearths! Death and flame they had never blanched before; but the
+nameless terrors of passing under the Yankee yoke vanquished them now.
+
+Pitiful were leave-takings of fathers with their children, husbands
+with new-made brides, lovers with those who clung to them in even
+greater helplessness. Ties welded in moments of danger and doubt--in
+moments of pleasure, precious from their rarity--all must be severed
+now, for none knew how long--perhaps forever! For man, nor woman, might
+pierce the black veil before the future. Only the vague oppression was
+there, that all was over at last; that days to come might mean
+protracted, bloody mountain warfare--captivity, death, separation
+eternal!
+
+So men went forth into the black midnight, to what fate they dreamed
+not, leaving those loved beyond self to what fate they dared not dream!
+
+But even in that supreme hour--true to her nature and true to her
+past--the woman of Richmond thought of her hero-soldier; not of
+herself. The last crust in the home was thrust into his reluctant hand;
+the last bottle of rare old wine slyly slipped into his haversack.
+Every man in gray was a brother-in-heart to every woman that night!
+
+Long after midnight, I rode by a well-remembered porch, where all that
+was brightest and gayest of Richmond's youth had passed many happy
+hours. There was Styles Staple; his joyous face clouded now, his glib
+tongue mute--with two weeping girls clinging to his hands. Solemnly he
+bent down; pressed his lips to each pure forehead, in a kiss that was a
+sacrament--threw himself into their mother's arms, as she had been his
+own as well; then, with a wrench, broke away and hurled himself into
+saddle. There was a black frown on Staple's face, as he rode up by me;
+and I heard a sound--part sob; more heart-deep oath--tear out of his
+throat. If the Recording Angel caught it, too, I dare swear there was
+no record against him for it, when--thirty hours later--he answered to
+his name before the Great Roll-Call! For no more knightly lips will
+ever press those pure brows; no more loyal soul went to its rest, out
+of that dire retreat.
+
+Two hours after midnight, all was ready; and all was still, save the
+muffled roll of distant wagons and, here and there, the sharp call of a
+bugle. Now and again, the bright glare, above the smoke round the whole
+horizon, would pale before a vivid, dazzling flash; followed by swaying
+tremble of the earth and a roar, hoarsely dull; and one more ship of
+the little navy was a thing of the past.
+
+Later still came to the steady tramp of soldiers--to be heard for the
+last time in those streets, though its echo may sound down all time!
+The last scene of the somber drama had begun; and the skeleton
+battery-supports filed by like specters, now in the gloom, now in the
+glare of one of the hundred fires. No sound but the muffled word of
+command came from their ranks; every head was bowed and over many a
+cheek--tanned by the blaze of the fight and furrowed by winter
+night-watches--the first tear it had ever known rolled noiselessly, to
+drop in the beloved dust they were shaking from their feet.
+
+Next came gaunt men, guiding half-starved horses that toiled along with
+rumbling field-pieces; voiceless now and impotent, as once, to welcome
+the advancing foe. And finally the cavalry pickets came in, with little
+show of order; passed across the last bridge and fired it behind them.
+Over its burning timbers rode General Breckinridge and his staff;--the
+last group of Confederates was gone;--Richmond was evacuated!
+
+_Dies irae--dies illa!_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+AFTER THE DEATH BLOW WAS DEALT.
+
+
+Just as dawn broke through the smoke-eddies over the deserted Capital,
+the morning after its evacuation, two carriages crept through the empty
+streets, toward the fortifications. In them--grave-faced and sad--sat
+the Mayor of Richmond and a committee of her council, carrying the
+formal surrender to the Federal commander on the northern bank of the
+James.
+
+Many a sad, a few terrified, faces peered at them through closed
+shutters; but the eager groups about the fires, striving still to
+secure scraps from the flames, never paused for a glance at the men who
+bore the form of the already accomplished fact.
+
+Before long, eager watchers from Chimborazo Heights saw bluecoats rise
+dim over the distant crest. Then came the clatter of cavalry, sabers
+drawn and at a trot; still cautiously feeling their way into the
+long-coveted stronghold. Behind followed artillery and infantry in
+compact column, up the River Road, through Rockett's to Capitol Square.
+There they halted; raised the Stars-and-stripes on the staff from which
+the Stars-and-bars had floated--often in their very sight--for four
+weary, bitter years!
+
+It was a solemn and gloomy march; little resembling the people's idea
+of triumphal entry into a captured city. The troops were quiet, showing
+little elation; their officers anxious and watchful ever; and dead
+silence reigned around them, broken only by the roar and hiss of
+flames, or the sharp explosion as they reached some magazine. Not a
+cheer broke the stillness; and even the wrangling, half-drunken bummers
+round the fires slunk sullenly away; while but few negroes showed their
+faces, and those ashen-black from indefinite fear; their great mouths
+gaping and white eyes rolling in curious dread that took away their
+faculty for noise.
+
+By the time Weitzel's brigade of occupation had been posted--and
+several regiments massed on the Capitol--the fire had become general.
+Intending only to destroy munitions and supplies of war--the firing
+party had been more hasty than discreet. A strong breeze sprang up, off
+the river, and warehouse followed warehouse into the line of the
+flames. Old, dry and crammed with cotton, or other inflammable
+material, these burned like tinder; and at many points, whole blocks
+were on fire.
+
+A dense pall of smoke hovered low over the entire city; and through it
+shone huge eddies of flames and sparks, carrying great blazing planks
+and rafters whirling over the shriveling buildings. Little by little
+these drew closer together; and by noon, one vast, livid flame roared
+and screamed before the wind, from Tenth street to Rockett's; licking
+its red tongue around all in its reach and drawing the hope--the very
+life of thousands into its relentless maw!
+
+Should the wind shift, that rapidly-gaining fire would sweep uptown and
+devour the whole city; but, while the few men left looked on in
+dismayed apathy, deliverance came from the enemy. The regiments in
+Capitol Square stacked arms; were formed into fire-squads; and sped at
+once to points of danger. Down the deserted streets these marched; now
+hidden by eddying smoke--again showing like silhouettes, against the
+vivid glare behind them. Once at their points for work, the men went at
+it with a will; and--so strong was force of discipline--with no single
+attempt at plunder reported!
+
+Military training never had better vindication than on that fearful
+day; for its bonds must have been strong indeed, to hold that army,
+suddenly in possession of city so coveted--so defiant--so deadly, for
+four long years.
+
+Whatever the citizens may vaguely have expected from Grant's army, what
+they received from it that day was aid--protection--safety! Demoralized
+and distracted by sorrow and imminent danger; with almost every male
+absent--with no organization and no means to fight the new and terrible
+enemy--the great bulk of Richmond's population might have been
+houseless that night, but for the disciplined promptitude of the Union
+troops. The men worked with good will; their officers, with ubiquitous
+energy. If the fire could not be stayed, at any particular point, a
+squad entered each house, bore its contents to a safe distance; and
+there a guard was placed over them.
+
+Sad and singular groups were there, too. Richmond's best and tenderest
+nurtured women moved among their household gods, hastily piled in the
+streets, selecting this or that sacred object, to carry it in their own
+hands--where? Poor families, utterly beggared, sat wringing their hands
+amid the wreck of what was left, homeless and hopeless; while, here and
+there, the shattered remnant of a soldier was borne, on a stretcher in
+kindly, if hostile, hands, through clouds of smoke and mourning
+relatives to some safer point.
+
+Ever blacker and more dense floated the smoke-pall over the deserted
+city; ever louder and more near roared the hungry flames. And
+constantly, through all that dreadful day, the _whoo!_ of shells from
+magazines, followed by the thud of explosion, cut the dull roar of the
+fire. For--whether through negligence or want of time--charged shells
+of all sizes had been left in the many ordnance stores when the torch
+was applied. These narrow brick chambers--now white hot and with a
+furnace-blast through them--swept the heaviest shells like cinders over
+the burning district. Rising high in air, with hissing fuses, they
+burst at many points, adding new terrors to the infernal scene; and
+some of them, borne far beyond the fire's limit, burst over the houses,
+tearing and igniting their dry roofs.
+
+Slowly the day, filled with its hideous sights and sounds, wore on; and
+slowly the perseverance of man told against the devouring element. The
+fire was, at last, kept within its own bounds; then gradually forced
+backward, to leave a charred, steaming belt between it and the unharmed
+town. Within this, the flames still leaped and writhed and wrangled in
+their devilish glee; but Richmond was now comparatively safe, and her
+wretched inhabitants might think of food and rest. Little had they
+recked of either for many a dread hour past!
+
+The provost-marshal, that unfailing adjunct to every occupation, had
+fixed his office at the court-house. There a mixed and singular crowd
+waited gloomily, or jostled eagerly, for speech of the autocrat of the
+hour. Captured officers stood quietly apart, or peered out earnestly
+through the smoke drifts, while their commitments to Libby Prison were
+made out; anxious and wan women, of every sphere in life, besieged the
+clerk preparing "protection papers;" while a fussy official, of higher
+grade, gave assurance to every one that guards should be placed about
+their homes. For the deserted women of Richmond dreaded not only the
+presence of the victorious enemy, but also that of the drunken and
+brutalized "bummers" and deserters who stayed behind their own army.
+
+The guards were really stationed as promptly as was practicable; the
+fire-brigade men were sent to quarters; pickets in blue patroled the
+outskirts; and, by nightfall, the proud Capital of the Southern
+Confederacy was only a Federal barrack!
+
+For two days after their entrance the Union army might have supposed
+they had captured a city of the dead. The houses were all tightly
+closed, shutters fastened and curtains drawn down; and an occasional
+blue-coated sentry in porch, or front yard, was the sole sign of life.
+In the streets it was little different. Crowds of soldiers moved
+curiously from point to point, large numbers of negroes mixing with
+them--anxious to assist their new found brotherhood, but wearing most
+awkwardly their vested rights. Here and there a gray jacket would
+appear for a moment--the pale and worn face above it watching with
+anxious eyes the unused scene; then it would disappear again. This was
+all. The Federals had full sweep of the city--with its silent streets
+and its still smoking district, charred and blackened; where, for acre
+after acre, only fragments of walls remained, and where tall chimney
+stacks, gaunt and tottering, pointed to heaven in witness against the
+useless sacrifice.
+
+For two days this lasted. The curious soldiers lounged about the silent
+town, the burned desert still sent up its clouds of close, fetid smoke;
+the ladies of Richmond remained close prisoners. Then necessity drove
+them out, to seek food, or some means to obtain it; to visit the sick
+left behind; or to make charitable visits to those who might be even
+less provided than themselves.
+
+Clad almost invariably in deep mourning--with heavy veils invariably
+hiding their faces--the broken-hearted daughters of the Capital moved
+like shadows of the past, through the places that were theirs no
+longer. There was no ostentation of disdain for their conquerors--no
+assumption of horror if they passed a group of Federals--no affected
+brushing of the skirt from the contact with the blue. There was only
+deep and real dejection--sorrow bearing too heavily on brain and heart
+to make an outward show--to even note smaller annoyances that might
+else have proved so keen. If forced into collision, or communication,
+with the northern officers, ladies were courteous as cold; they made no
+parade of hatred, but there was that in their cold dignity which spoke
+plainly of impassable barriers.
+
+And, to their credit be it spoken, the soldiers of the North respected
+the distress they could but see; the bitterness they could not
+misunderstand. They made few approaches toward forcing their
+society--even where billeted in the houses of the citizens, keeping
+aloof and never intruding on the family circle.
+
+For several days the water-approaches to the city could not be cleared
+from the obstructions sunk in them; all railroad communication was
+destroyed, and the whole population was dependent upon the slender
+support of the wagon trains. Few even of the wealthiest families had
+been able to make provision ahead; scarcely any one had either gold, or
+greenbacks; and suffering became actual and pinching. Then came the
+order that the Federal commissary was to issue rations to those needing
+them. Pinching themselves, as they did; preferring to subsist on the
+slenderest food that would sustain life, to accepting the charity of
+the enemy--many of those suffering women were driven by sheer
+hunger--by the threatened starvation of their children, or of the loved
+wounded ones near them--to seek the proffered bounty. They forced their
+way into the surging, fighting crowd of greasy and tattered negroes, of
+dark-faced "bummers" and "loyal" residents--and they received small
+rations of cornmeal and codfish; bearing them home to be eaten with
+what bitter seasoning they might of tears from pain and humiliation.
+
+The direst destitution of the war had been nothing to this. With their
+own people around them, with hope and love to sustain them, the women
+of Richmond did not wince under the pinch of want. But now, surrounded
+by enemies, with not a pound of flour, or a cent of currency, actual
+starvation--as well as humiliation--stared them in the face. The few
+who went to draw rations, sat down in blank despair. They _could not_
+make up their minds to go again. The fewer still, who had the least
+surplus from immediate wants, distributed it freely; and a cup of sugar
+from a slender stock was bartered here for a few slices of the hoarded
+ham, or a pound or two of necessary meal.
+
+Meantime, sutlers, peddlers and hucksters swarmed in like locusts, on
+the very first steamers up the river. They crowded Broad street, the
+unburned stores on Main, and even the alleyways, with great piles of
+every known thing that could be put up in tin. They had calculated on a
+rich harvest; but they had reckoned without their host. There was no
+money in Richmond to spend with them; and after a profitless sojourn,
+they took up their tin cans, and one by one returned North--certainly
+wiser and, possibly, better men. It was peculiar to note the
+universality of southern sympathy among these traders. There was
+scarcely one among them who didn't think the war "a darned shame;" they
+were intensely sympathetic and all came from South of the Pennsylvania
+line. But the supporters, either of their principles, or their trade,
+were the few lucky negroes who could collect "stamps," in never so
+small qualities; and to such the sutlers were a joy forever.
+
+Shut off entirely from any communication with their retreating troops
+and mingling so little with their captors, Richmond people got only
+most startling and unreliable rumors from the army. Clinging, with the
+tenacity of the drowning, to the least straw of hope, they would not
+yet give up utterly that army they had looked on so long as
+invincible--that cause, which was more than life to them! Though they
+knew the country around was filled with deserters and stragglers;
+though the Federals had brigades lying round Richmond in perfect
+idleness--still for a time the rumor gained credit that General Lee had
+turned on his pursuer, at Amelia Court House, and gained a decisive
+victory over him. Then came the more positive news that Ewell was cut
+off with 13,000 men; and, finally, on the 9th of April, Richmond heard
+that Lee had surrendered. Surely as this result should have been looked
+forward to--gradually as the popular mind had been led to it--still it
+came as a blow of terrific suddenness. The people refused to believe
+it--they said it was a Yankee trick; and when the salute of one hundred
+guns rang out from forts and shipping, they still said, bitterly, it
+was a ruse to make them commit themselves.
+
+Gradually they came to accept the inevitable; and, as the last ray of
+hope died out, its place was filled with the intense yearning to know
+the fate of those lost and loved ones--to know if they had died at the
+bitter ending, or lived to be borne away into captivity. Forgetting
+pride, hostility--all but their anxiety for those so precious to them
+now--the women caught at every shred of information; questioned
+ignorant soldiers eagerly; and listened patiently to the intelligible
+news the officers were only too willing to give. And at last these
+rumors assumed tangible form--there was no longer any room to doubt.
+General Lee, weakened by desertion and breaking down of his men--by
+General Ewell's capture and by the sense of hopelessness of further
+resistance, had on the morning of the 9th of April, surrendered 24,000
+men--including the volunteer citizens, and the naval brigade of all the
+Richmond ship's-crews--and with them 8,000 muskets! Such, too, was the
+condition of the horses that the Federals refused even to drive them
+away from their stands. Little need, indeed, had there been for those
+extra brigades around the city.
+
+Then Richmond, sitting like Rachel in her desolation, waited for the
+return of her vanquished--heroes still to her. News came of the general
+parole; and every sound across the river--every cloud of dust at the
+pontoon bridge--was the signal for a rush to doorstep and porch. Days
+passed and the women--not realizing the great difficulties of
+transportation--grew impatient to clasp their loved ones once more to
+their hearts. False outcries were made every hour, only to result in
+sickening disappointment and suspense. At last the evening of the third
+day came and, just at dusk, a single horseman turned slowly into
+deserted Franklin street.
+
+Making no effort to urge his jaded beast, travel-stained and weary
+himself, he let the reins fall from his hands and his head droop upon
+his chest. It was some time before any one noticed that he wore the
+beloved gray--that he was Major B., one of the bravest and most staunch
+of the noble youth Richmond had sent out at the first. Like electricity
+the knowledge ran from house to house--"Tom B. has come! The army is
+coming!"
+
+Windows, doorsteps and curbstones became alive at the words--each woman
+had known him from childhood--had known him joyous, and frank, and ever
+gay. Each longed to ask for husband, son, or brother; but all held back
+as they saw the dropped head, and felt his sorrow too deep to be
+disturbed.
+
+At last one fair wife, surrounded by her young children, stepped into
+the road and spoke. The ice was broken. The soldier was surrounded;
+fair faces quivering with suspense, looked up to his, as soft voices
+begged for news of--"somebody's darling;" and tender hands even patted
+the starved beast that had borne the hero home! The broad chest heaved
+as it would burst, a great sob shook the stalwart frame, and a huge
+teardrop rolled down the cheek that had never changed color in the
+hottest flashes of the fight. And then the sturdy soldier--conquering
+his emotion but with no shame for it--told all he could and lightened
+many a heavy heart. And up to his own door they walked by his side,
+bareheaded and in the roadway, and there they left him alone to be
+folded in the embrace of the mother to whom he still was "glorious in
+the dust."
+
+Next morning a small group of horsemen appeared on the further side of
+the pontoons. By some strange intuition, it was known that General Lee
+was among them, and a crowd collected all along the route he would
+take, silent and bareheaded. There was no excitement, no hurrahing;
+but, as the great chief passed, a deep, loving murmur, greater than
+these, rose from the very hearts of the crowd. Taking off his hat and
+simply bowing his head, the man great in adversity passed silently to
+his own door; it closed upon him, and his people had seen him for the
+last time in his battle harness.
+
+Later others came, by scores and hundreds; many a household was made
+glad that could not show a crust for dinner; and then for days Franklin
+street lived again. Once more the beloved gray was everywhere, and once
+more bright eyes regained a little of their brightness, as they looked
+upon it.
+
+Then suddenly the reins were tightened. On the morning of the 14th, the
+news of Lincoln's murder fell like a thunderclap upon victor and
+vanquished in Richmond. At first the news was not credited; then an
+indignant denial swelled up from the universal heart, that it was for
+southern vengeance, or that southern men could have sympathy in so vile
+an act. The sword and not the dagger was the weapon the South had
+proved she could use; and through the length and breadth of the
+conquered land was a universal condemnation of the deed.
+
+But the Federal authorities--whether sincere in their belief, or
+not--made this the pretext for a thorough change of policy in Richmond.
+
+First came uniform orders, that none of the insignia, or rank marks, of
+the South should be worn--a measure peculiarly oppressive to men who
+had but one coat. Then came rules about "congregations of rebels," and
+three Confederates could not stand a moment on a corner, without
+dispersion by a provost-guard.
+
+Finally came the news of Johnston's surrender--of the last blow to the
+cause, now lost indeed. Still this fact had been considered a certain
+one from the date of Lee's surrender; and it bore none of the crushing
+weight that had made them refuse to believe in the latter. Confident as
+all were in General Johnston's ability to do all that man might, they
+still knew his numerical weakness; that he must ere long be crushed
+between the upper and nether millstones. So this news was received with
+a sigh, rather than a groan.
+
+There was a momentary hope that the wise covenant between Generals
+Johnston and Sherman, as to the basis of the surrender, would be
+indorsed by the Government; but the result of its refusal and of the
+final surrender on the 13th--was after all little different from what
+all had expected. Even the wild and maddened spirits, who refused to
+accept Lee's cartel, and started to work their way to Johnston, could
+have had no hope of his final success in their calmer moments.
+
+But Johnston's surrender did not lift the yoke from Richmond, in any
+degree. Police regulations of the most annoying character were imposed;
+the fact of a parole bearing any significance was entirely ignored; no
+sort of grace was shown to its possessor, unless he took the oath; and
+many men, caught in Richmond at this time and far from home, were
+reduced to distress and almost starvation by the refusal of
+transportation.
+
+All this the southern people bore with patience. They submitted to all
+things but two: they would not take the oath and they would not mix
+socially with their conquerors. In that respect the line was as
+rigorously drawn in Richmond, at that time, as ever Venice drew it
+against the Austrian. Not that any attempt was omitted by the Federals
+to overcome what they called this "prejudice." There was music in
+Capitol Square, by the best bands of the army, and the ladies were
+specially invited by the public prints. Not one went; and the officers
+listened to their own music in company with numbers of lusty black
+emancipated, who fully felt themselves women and sisters. Next it was
+given out that the negroes would not be admitted; but then the officers
+listened alone, and finally gave it up. Failing in public, every
+effort--short of rudeness and intrusion, which were never resorted
+to--was made to effect a social lodgment in private. But no Federal
+uniform ever crossed a rebel threshold, in those days, save on
+business. The officers occupied parts of many houses; but they were
+made to feel that the other part, occupied by the household, was
+private still.
+
+Another infliction, harder to bear, was the well-meant intrusion of old
+friends from the North. Pleasure parties to Richmond were of constant
+occurrence; and for the time quite eclipsed in popularity, with the
+Washington idlers, the inevitable pilgrimage to Mt. Vernon. Gaily
+dressed and gushing over in the merriment of a party of pleasure, these
+visitors often sought out their _ante-bellum_ friends; and then and
+there would condone the crime of rebellion to them--sitting in
+desolation by the ashes of their household gods. It is not hard to
+understand how bitter was proffered forgiveness, to those who never
+admitted they could have been wrong; and perhaps the soft answer that
+turneth away wrath, was not always given to such zealously officious
+friends.
+
+There was little bitterness expressed, however much may have fermented
+in the hearts of the captured; and, as a general thing, the people were
+grateful for the moderation of the Yankees, and appreciated the good
+they had done at the fire. But, deeper than any bitterness could have
+sunk, was that ingrained feeling that there were two peoples that these
+could never again mingle in former amity, till oil and water might mix.
+The men especially--and with much apparent reason--were utterly
+hopeless of the future; and, collecting in knots, they would gloomily
+discuss the prospect of emigration, as if that were the sole good the
+future held. There can be little doubt that had the ability been
+theirs, a large majority of the young men of the South would have gone
+abroad, to seek their fortunes in new paths and under new skies.
+Luckily, for their country, the commander at Richmond failed to keep
+his agreement with the paroled officers; and--after making out rolls of
+those who would be granted free permission and passage to Canada,
+England or South America--those rolls were suddenly annulled and the
+whole matter given up. Thus a number of useful, invaluable men who have
+ever since fought the good fight against that outrage--the imposition
+of negro dominance over her--were saved to the South.
+
+And that good fight, begun in the natural law of self-preservation, has
+eventuated to the interests of a common country. For no one who does
+not intimately understand the character of the negro--his mental and
+moral, as well as his physical, constitution--can begin to comprehend
+the sin committed against him, even more than against the white man, by
+putting him in the false attitude of equality with, or antagonism to,
+the latter.
+
+No one, who did not move among the negroes, immediately after conquest
+of the South--and who did not see them with experience-opened eyes--can
+approach realization of the pernicious workings of that futile attempt.
+
+Writing upon the inner details of the war and its resulting action upon
+the morale of the southern people, omission can not be made of that
+large and unfortunate class; driven--first by blind fanaticism, later
+by fear of their own party existence--into abnormal condition by the
+ultra radicals. The negro rapidly changed; "equality" frittered away
+what good instincts he had and developed all the worst, innate with
+him. It changed him from a careless and thriftless, but happy and
+innocent producer, into a mere consumer, at best; often indeed, into a
+besotted and criminal idler, subsisting in part upon Nature's
+generosity in supplying cabbage and fish, in part upon the
+thoughtlessness of his neighbor in supplying chickens and eggs.
+
+Yet--so powerful is result of habit; on so much foundation of nature is
+based the Scythian fable--the negroes of the South, immediately
+succeeding the surrender, used the new greatness thrust upon them with
+surprising innocence. Laziness, liquor and loud asseverations of
+freedom and equality were its only blessings claimed; and the
+commission of overt acts, beyond those named, were rare enough to prove
+the rule of force of habit. Lured from old service for a time, most of
+them followed not far the gaudy and shining Will-o'-the-Wisp; and
+almost all--especially the household and personal servants--soon
+returned to "Ole Mas'r" once more, sadder and wiser for the futile
+chase after freedom's joys. But, even these were partly spoiled and
+rendered of far less practical use to themselves, or to their
+employers.
+
+The "negro question" to-day is made merely a matter of politics, rather
+than one of political economy. At the date of the Confederacy's death,
+it is a matter of history.
+
+Gradually--by very slow degrees--people in Richmond--as elsewhere in
+the South, further removed from victor's contact--began to grow so far
+accustomed to the chains imposed upon them, that they seemed less
+unbearably galling. Little by little--forced by the necessities of
+themselves and of those still dearer--men went to work at new and
+strange occupations; doing not what they would, but what they could, in
+the bitter struggle with want for their daily bread. But, spite of
+earnest resolve and steady exertion,
+
+    "There was little to earn and many to keep--"
+
+and every month it seemed to grow harder and harder to make the bare
+means of life. And not alone did the men work--hard and steadily, early
+and late. As the women of the South had been the counsellors, the
+comforters, the very life of the soldiers when the dark hour was
+threatened; so they proved themselves worthy helpmeets now that it had
+come.
+
+No privation was too great, no work too unaccustomed for them to
+undergo. Little hands that had never held even a needle until the war,
+now wrought laboriously at the varied--sometimes even menial--occupations
+that the hour demanded. And they worked, as they had borne the war--with
+never a murmur; with ever a cheering word for the fellow-laborer beside
+them--with a bright trust in the future and that each one's particular
+"King should have his own again."
+
+And here the author's task is ended--albeit far from completed; for so
+little has been told, where there was so much to tell. But, there was
+no longer a Rebel Capital, to offer its inside view; and what followed
+the fall--were it not already a twice-told tale--has no place in these
+pages. Disjointed sketches, these have perchance told some new, or
+interesting, facts. Certes, they have omitted many more, well worth the
+telling, noted during those four unparalleled years; but plainly not
+compressible, within the limits of one volume.
+
+Happily, the trials, the strain, the suffering of those years remain
+with us, but as a memory. That memory is, to the South, a sacred
+heritage which unreasoning fanaticism may not dim--which Time, himself,
+shall not efface. To the North that memory should be cleared of
+prejudice and bitterness, becoming thus a lesson priceless in worth.
+
+Happily, too, the sober second thought of a common people, aided by the
+loyalty of the South--to herself and to her plighted faith--has changed
+into recemented union of pride and of interest, that outlook from the
+crumbled gates of Richmond, which made her people groan in their
+hearts:
+
+_Solitudinem faciunt appellantque pacem!_
+
+
+FINIS.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+_FIRST AND LAST BLOOD OF THE WAR._
+
+
+While the battle of Bethel is recorded in the foregoing pages as the
+first decided fight of the war between the States, it may leave
+erroneous impression not to note the date of "first blood" really shed
+in action on southern soil. In the report of the Adjutant-general of
+the State of Virginia, for 1866, occurs this entry:
+
+    J. Q. Marr, graduated July 4, 1846. Lawyer, Member of the Virginia
+    Convention. Entered military service as Captain of Virginia
+    Volunteers, April 1, 1861. Killed at Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia,
+    May 13, 1861. First blood of the war.
+
+Naturally, many conflicting statements as to the last effective shot of
+the long struggle were made and received as true. The most reliable
+would appear to be the following, reproduced from a paper printed by
+the boys of Mr. Denson's school, in the village of Pittsboro, N.C., in
+1866:
+
+    The accomplished author of that series of interesting papers, "The
+    Last Ninety Days of the War in North Carolina," published in _The
+    Watchman_, New York, states that the last blood of the war was shed
+    near the Atkins plantation, a few miles from Chapel Hill, on the
+    14th April, 1865. In a later number of the same paper, a member of
+    the First Tennessee Cavalry says that it is a mistake; that
+    companies E and F, of the same regiment to which he belonged,
+    skirmished sharply with the Federals on the 15th, and claims that
+    this was the last blood shed. Both are in error; there was a
+    skirmish near Mt. Zion church, two miles south-east of Pittsboro,
+    North Carolina, between a body of Wheeler's cavalry and a party of
+    Federals, on the 17th of April; two Yankees were wounded, and three
+    others, with several horses, captured. There was other skirmishing
+    in the neighborhood about this time, and as late as the 29th (two
+    days after General Johnston surrendered), a squad of Federal
+    cavalry rode through Pittsboro, firing upon the citizens and
+    returned soldiers, and receiving their fire in return. These men
+    were pursued and overtaken near Haw river, where a skirmish
+    occurred, in which two of the Yankees were killed and two others
+    wounded, one mortally. This Haw river incident is a familiar and
+    well authenticated one and most probably it really showed the last
+    of the long bloodshed.
+
+                     *        *        *        *
+
+_WHY NO PURSUIT AFTER MANASSAS._
+
+
+Attention has frequently been drawn to the restiveness of the entire
+southern people, under alleged neglect to seize golden opportunities
+for pressing the enemy, after Confederate successes. Most frequently
+repeated of all these charges, is that which puts upon the shoulders of
+Jefferson Davis the onus of delay--and of all resulting evil--after the
+first victory on Manassas Plains. This charge receives semi-official
+sanction, from ex-Vice-President Stephens; for his history of the war
+plainly asserts that to the President was due "the failure of the
+Confederate troops to advance after the battle of Manassas." The
+following correspondence between the two men most interested in that
+mooted question may therefore be read with interest by all candid
+thinkers:
+
+    RICHMOND, VA., November 3, 1861.
+
+    _General J. E. Johnston, Commanding Department of the Potomac:_
+
+    SIR: Reports have been and are being widely circulated to the
+    effect that I prevented General Beauregard from pursuing the enemy
+    after the battle of Manassas, and had subsequently restrained him
+    from advancing upon Washington City. Though such statements may
+    have been made merely for my injury, and in that view their notice
+    might be postponed to a more convenient season, they have acquired
+    importance from the fact that they have served to create distrust,
+    to excite disappointment, and must embarrass the administration in
+    its further efforts to re-enforce the armies of the Potomac, and
+    generally to provide for the public defense.
+
+    For these public considerations, I call upon you as the commanding
+    general, and as a party to all the conferences held by me on the
+    21st and 22d of July, to say whether I obstructed the pursuit of
+    the enemy after the victory at Manassas, or have ever objected to
+    an advance or other active operation which it was feasible for the
+    army to undertake?
+
+    Very respectfully yours, etc.,
+
+    JEFFERSON DAVIS.
+
+
+    HEADQUARTERS, CENTREVILLE, November 10, 1861.
+
+    _To His Excellency, the President:_
+
+    SIR: I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 3d instant,
+    in which you call upon me, as the "Commanding General, and as a
+    party to all the conferences held by you on the 21st and 22d of
+    July, to say:
+
+    "Whether I obstructed the pursuit after the battle of Manassas.
+
+    "Or have ever objected to an advance, or other active operations
+    which it was feasible for the army to undertake."
+
+    To the first question I reply: No. The pursuit was "obstructed" by
+    the enemy's troops at Centreville, as I have stated in my official
+    report. In that report I have also said why no advance was made
+    upon the enemy's capital (for reasons) as follows:
+
+    The apparent freshness of the United States troops at Centreville,
+    which checked our pursuit; the strong forces occupying the works
+    near Georgetown, Arlington and Alexandria; the certainty, too, that
+    General Patterson, if needed, would reach Washington with his army
+    of more than 30,000, sooner than we could; and the condition and
+    inadequate means of the army in ammunition, provision and
+    transportation, prevented any serious thoughts of advancing against
+    the Capital.
+
+    To the second question, I reply, that it has never been feasible
+    for the army to advance further than it has done--to the line of
+    Fairfax Courthouse, with its advanced posts at Upton's, Munson's
+    and Mason's Hills. After a conference at Fairfax Courthouse with
+    the three senior General officers, you announced it to be
+    impracticable to give this army the strength which those officers
+    considered necessary to enable it to assume the offensive. Upon
+    which, I drew it back to its present position.
+
+    Most respectfully your obedient servant,
+
+    J. E. JOHNSTON.
+
+    A true copy:
+
+    G. W. C. LEE, Col. and A.D.C.
+
+                     *        *        *        *
+
+_THE FIRING UNDER THE WHITE FLAG, IN HAMPTON ROADS._
+
+
+Reference has been made in these pages, to the peculiar circumstances
+of the wounding of Flag-Lieutenant Robert D. Minor, in the "Merrimac"
+fight on the 8th March, 1862. The official report of Fleet-Captain
+Franklin Buchanan distinctly states the facts and formulates the
+charge, accepted by the author. From that lengthy and detailed official
+document is reproduced verbatim this
+
+    EXTRACT FROM REPORT OF FLAG-OFFICER BUCHANAN.
+
+    NAVAL HOSPITAL,
+    NORFOLK, March 27, 1862.
+
+    _To Hon. S. R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy:_
+
+    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
+
+    While the Virginia was thus engaged in getting her position, for
+    attacking the Congress, the prisoners state it was believed on
+    board that ship that we had hauled off; the men left their guns and
+    gave three cheers. They were soon sadly undeceived, for a few
+    minutes after we opened upon her again, she having run on shore in
+    shoal water. The carnage, havoc and dismay, caused by our fire,
+    compelled them to haul down their colors, and to hoist a white flag
+    at their gaff half-mast, and another at the main. The crew
+    instantly took to their boats and landed. Our fire immediately
+    ceased, and a signal was made for the Beaufort to come within hail.
+    I then ordered Lieutenant-Commanding Parker to take possession of
+    the Congress, secure the officers as prisoners, allow the crew to
+    land, and burn the ship. He ran alongside, received her flag and
+    surrender, from Commander William Smith and Lieutenant Pendergrast,
+    with the side-arms of those officers. They delivered themselves as
+    prisoners of war on board the Beaufort, and afterward were
+    permitted, at their own request, to return to the Congress, to
+    assist in removing the wounded to the Beaufort. They never
+    returned, and I submit to the decision of the Department whether
+    they are not our prisoners. While the Beaufort and Raleigh were
+    alongside the Congress, and the surrender of that vessel had been
+    received from the commander, she having two white flags flying,
+    hoisted by her own people, a heavy fire was opened upon them from
+    the shore and from the Congress, killing some valuable officers and
+    men. Under this fire the steamers left the Congress; but as I was
+    not informed that any injury had been sustained by those vessels at
+    that time, Lieutenant-Commanding Parker having failed to report to
+    me, I took it for granted that my order to him to burn her had been
+    executed and waited some minutes to see the smoke ascending from
+    her hatches. During this delay we were still subjected to the heavy
+    fire from the batteries, which was always promptly returned.
+
+    The steam frigates Minnesota and Roanoke, and the sailing frigate
+    St. Lawrence, had previously been reported as coming from Old
+    Point; but as I was determined that the Congress should not again
+    fall into the hands of the enemy, I remarked to that gallant young
+    officer, Flag-Lieutenant Minor, "that ship must be burned." He
+    promptly volunteered to take a boat and burn her, and the Teazer,
+    Lieutenant-Commanding Webb, was ordered to cover the boat.
+    Lieutenant Minor had scarcely reached within fifty yards of the
+    Congress, when a deadly fire was opened upon him, wounding him
+    severely and several of his men. On witnessing this vile treachery,
+    I instantly recalled the boat and ordered the Congress destroyed by
+    hot shot and incendiary shell.
+
+    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
+
+    FRANKLIN BUCHANAN, _Flag Officer_.
+
+                     *        *        *        *
+
+_DEPRECIATION OF CONFEDERATE CURRENCY._
+
+
+In the chapters on Finance and Dollars and Cents, reference has been
+made to the rapid depreciation of C.S. Treasury notes. The condensed
+table appended--gathered from most reliable data--will explain this
+more clearly than could a volume:
+
+    RELATIVE VALUE OF GOLD FROM JANUARY 1, 1861, TO MAY 12, 1865.
+
+    1861.--January 1st to May 1st, 5 per cent.; to October 1st, 10 per
+    cent.; October 15th, 12 per cent.; November 15th, 15 per cent.;
+    December 1st, 20 per cent.
+
+    1862.--January 1st, 20 per cent.; February 1st, 25 per cent.;
+    February 15th, 40 per cent.; March 1st, 50 per cent.; March 15th,
+    65 percent.; April 1st, 75 percent.; April 15th, 80 per cent.; May
+    1st. 90 per cent.; May 15th, 95 per cent.; June 15th, 2 for 1;
+    August 1st, 2.20 for 1; September 1st, 2.50 for 1.
+
+    1863.--February 1st, 3 for 1; February 15th, 3.10 for 1; March 1st,
+    3.25 for 1; March 15th, 5 for 1; May 15th, 6 for 1; June 1st, 6.50
+    for 1; June 15th, 7.50 for 1; July 1st, 8 for 1; July 15th, 10 for
+    1; August 15th, 15 for 1; November 15th, 15.50 for 1; December
+    15th, 21 for 1.
+
+    1864.--March 1st, 26 for 1; April 1st, 19 for 1; May 1st, 20 for 1;
+    August 15th, 21 for 1; September 15th, 23 for 1; October 15th, 25
+    for 1; November 15th, 28 for 1; December 1st, 32 for 1; December
+    31st, 51 for 1.
+
+    1865.--January 1st, 60 for 1; February 1st, 50 for 1; April 1st, 70
+    for 1; April 15th, 80 for 1; April 20th, 100 for 1; April 26th, 200
+    for 1; April 28th, 500 for 1; April 29th, 800 for 1; April 30th,
+    1,000 for 1, May 1st (last actual sale of Confederate notes), 1,200
+    for 1.
+
+                     *        *        *        *
+
+_GENERAL LEE'S FAREWELL ORDER TO THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA._
+
+
+    HEADQUARTERS ARMY NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
+    April 10, 1865.
+
+    GENERAL ORDER, }
+    NO. 9.         }
+
+    After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage
+    and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to
+    yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the
+    brave survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have remained
+    steadfast to the last, that I have consented to this result from no
+    distrust of them; but, feeling that valor and devotion could
+    accomplish nothing that would compensate for the loss that must
+    have attended the continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid
+    the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared
+    them to their countrymen.
+
+    By the terms of agreement, officers and men can return to their
+    homes and there remain until exchanged. You will take with you the
+    satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty well
+    performed; and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to
+    you His blessing and protection. With unceasing admiration of your
+    constancy and devotion to your country and a grateful remembrance
+    of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you an
+    affectionate farewell.
+
+    R. E. LEE, _General_.
+
+                     *        *        *        *
+
+_GENERAL JOHNSTON'S FAREWELL ORDER TO THE ARMY OF TENNESSEE._
+
+
+    HEADQUARTERS ARMY TENNESSEE,
+    Near Greensboro, N.C., April 27, 1865.
+
+    GENERAL ORDER, }
+    NO. 18.        }
+
+    By the terms of a military convention made on the 26th instant, by
+    Major-General W. T. Sherman, United States Army, and General J. E.
+    Johnston, Confederate States Army, the officers and men of this
+    army are to bind themselves not to take up arms against the United
+    States until properly relieved from that obligation, and shall
+    receive guarantees from the United States officers against
+    molestation by the United States authorities so long as they
+    observe that obligation and the laws in force where they reside.
+
+    For these objects, duplicate muster-rolls will be made out
+    immediately, and after the distribution of the necessary papers,
+    the troops will be marched under their officers to their respective
+    States, and there be disbanded, retaining all private property.
+
+    The object of this convention is pacification, to the extent of the
+    authority of the commanders who made it. Events in Virginia which
+    broke every hope of success by war, imposed on its general the duty
+    of sparing the blood of this gallant army and saving our country
+    from further devastation and our people from ruin.
+
+    J. E. JOHNSTON, _General_.
+
+                     *        *        *        *
+
+_GENERAL SHERMAN'S ORDER ON HIS CONVENTION WITH GENERAL JOHNSTON._
+
+
+    HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
+    In the Field, Raleigh, N.C., April 27, 1863.
+
+    SPECIAL FIELD ORDER, }
+    NO. 65.              }
+
+    The General Commanding announces a further suspension of
+    hostilities and a final agreement with General Johnston, which
+    terminates the war as to the armies under his command and the
+    country east of the Chattahoochee.
+
+    Copies of the terms of convention will be furnished Major-Generals
+    Schofield, Gillmore and Wilson, who are specially charged with the
+    execution of its details in the Department of North Carolina,
+    Department of the South, and at Macon and Western Georgia.
+
+    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
+
+    General Schofield will procure at once the necessary blanks, and
+    supply the Army Commanders, that uniformity may prevail; and great
+    care must be taken that the terms and stipulations on our part be
+    fulfilled with the most scrupulous fidelity, whilst those imposed
+    on our hitherto enemies be received in a spirit becoming a brave
+    and generous army.
+
+    Army Commanders may at once loan to the inhabitants such of the
+    captured mules, horses, wagons and vehicles as can be spared from
+    immediate use; and the Commanding Generals of Armies may issue
+    provisions, animals and any public supplies that can be spared, to
+    relieve present wants and to encourage the inhabitants to renew
+    their peaceful pursuits, and to restore the relations of friendship
+    among our fellow-citizens and countrymen.
+
+    Foraging will forthwith cease, and, when necessity or long marches
+    compel the taking of forage, provisions or any kind of private
+    property, compensation will be made on the spot; or, when the
+    disbursing officers are not provided with funds, vouchers will be
+    given in proper form, payable at the nearest Military Depot.
+
+    By order of
+
+    MAJOR-GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN.
+
+    L. M. DAYTON, _Assistant Adjutant-General_.
+
+
+
+
+RECENTLY ISSUED--BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+Juny: or Only One Girl's Story.
+
+271 PAGES. PAPER COVERS. PRICE, 50 CENTS.
+
+Sold by all Dealers; or Mailed (Prepaid), on receipt of Price, by
+THE GOSSIP PRINTING CO., Mobile, Ala.
+
+
+CONDENSED PRESS COMMENT.
+
+"Juny" is a lively story.--[_Cincinnati Enquirer._
+
+A racily written, exciting tale of the South.--[_Portland Argus._
+
+A dramatic story of southern life. It is full of incident.--[_Albany
+(N.Y.) Express._
+
+Vividly told, with a beautiful Octoroon as the central figure.--_Harrisburg
+Telegram._
+
+Entertaining romance of the "Society crust"--upper and under.--[_Kansas
+City Journal_.
+
+More dramatic than "Creole and Puritan;" more genuine fun than "Rock or
+the Rye."--[_Augusta News._
+
+Showing varied phases of the great city, in the _salon_, the clubs and
+the slums.--[_Syracuse Herald._
+
+It is full of excitement and adventure and, on that score alone, will
+prove interesting--[_Evening Wisconsin._
+
+The plot is good; and the author's name sufficient guarantee for
+literary excellence.--[_Columbus Despatch._
+
+By a writer who has attained reputation, the romance will prove
+interesting reading.--[_San Francisco Call._
+
+A bright, readable story, full of action; the dialects true to life and
+the climax artistically managed.--[_Toledo (O.) Bee._
+
+There is much to be commended in "Juny," and the character of the
+heroine is certainly well drawn.--[_Town Topics._
+
+The characters are strongly drawn; and the story, sensational and
+romantic, has dramatic force.--[_American Stationer._
+
+From the author of "Creole and Puritan" and other stories; and is very
+bright and readable.--[_Rochester Post-Express._
+
+Above any Mr. DeLeon has yet written; and can be placed above the best
+work of modern times.--[_New Orleans Picayune._
+
+A book of merit. The author shows close acquaintance with Miss
+Murfree's dealing with the same class.--[_Minneapolis Journal._
+
+Contains many good situations and some striking types of life, of which
+the "Leading Man" is the most comic.--[_The Bookseller._
+
+Most ambitious of this author's works; containing a plot of thrilling
+interest and several new American types.--[_Baltimore American._
+
+Cleverly constructed and containing more than one good character. The
+reader who begins it will be sure to read it to the close.--[_New York
+Sun._
+
+Has been complimented very highly. It is very readable, the characters
+strong; and the plot contains many dramatic situations.--[_Savannah
+News._
+
+An exceedingly bright and cleverly written story; charmingly told; most
+especially felicitous in all that treats of southern character and
+life. The old negro is a masterpiece of _genre_ sketching; and the
+Louisiana girl and her Octoroon mother are no less clean cut and
+graphic. Mr. DeLeon is the promising writer of the South. He knows his
+people and region thoroughly.--[_Chicago Times._
+
+A very romantic story. The book is sensational; but the skill with
+which the story is told saves it from being ridiculous.--[_San
+Francisco Chronicle._
+
+Most successful descriptive and character studies. Animated from the
+very first chapter; and once beginning, one can scarcely leave
+it.--[_New Orleans Bee._
+
+The sketch of moonshining life in the North Carolina mountains is, to
+say the least, clever. The author has made a distinct success in
+this.--[_Hartford Post._
+
+The devotion of the old negro for his "chile" and the affection
+springing up between her and Wilmot Browne are the features of the
+book.--[_North American._
+
+A highly exciting story of life, in widely differing circles. All of
+the bad characters are disposed of rapidly, but with a proper eye to
+effect.--[_New York Herald._
+
+Just the thing for the car or hammock; a lively novel, introducing many
+odd characters in many odd situations of high and low life.--[_Minneapolis
+Housekeeper._
+
+Well written and full of "situations," many of them wrought up to a
+point of thrilling interest. The many characters are drawn in natural
+colors.--[_Brooklyn Citizen._
+
+Mr. DeLeon has written several novels which had a run; but this one
+surpasses any in cleverness of plot, thrilling situations and general
+interest.--[_Salt Lake Herald._
+
+Brightness of dialogue and richness of incident. The suicide of the
+gambler is a startling effect; worthy of the imagination and
+descriptive power of Zola!--[_Mobile Register._
+
+The same authority pronounces "the leading man of the Grand Duke's
+Opera House" the most original type in comic fiction since we met _Sam
+Weller_.--[_Denver Republican._
+
+Some situations, especially those in the slums of the "East Side," are
+intensely dramatic. _Juny_ and the characters that surround her are
+exceedingly well drawn.--[_Philadelphia Times._
+
+"Juny" is bright and sensational. * * The Mobile novelist is especially
+happy in his southern scenes and characters; but his plots have wide
+range and embrace high and low life.--[_Atlanta Constitution._
+
+T. C. DeLeon has recommended himself as a writer of talent and power.
+His latest work is perhaps his best, as his wit, his dramatic force and
+his striking ability for character drawing are all forcibly
+exhibited.--[_Columbus (O.) Journal._
+
+We have not read a better story for many a day. Mr. DeLeon has advanced
+rapidly to foremost rank among American novelists of the present day.
+The plot is skillfully framed and many thrilling, as well as humorous,
+situations keep the reader's mind alert.--[_Chicago Herald._
+
+T. C. DeLeon, whose "Rock or the Rye," a clever parody of Amelie Rives,
+was a decided success, has added "Juny" to the list of his novels; the
+scene changing from a moonshiner's camp to New York, with the heroine a
+beautiful Octoroon girl.--[_San Francisco Argonaut._
+
+Southern authors are coming to the front. Among those named more and
+more frequently of late is T. C. DeLeon. The story is as full of plot
+as it can hold; and if action plays as large a part in fiction, as
+Demosthenes averred it did in oratory, "Juny" should be a popular
+book.--[_Boston Commonwealth._
+
+Mr. DeLeon's "Creole and Puritan" proved most conclusively that he
+could write well; and his satire on the "Quick or the Dead" was laughed
+over by the whole country. The story of "Juny" shows the creative power
+of the author. It is strong and his descriptive powers have full
+sway.--[_New Orleans Picayune._
+
+The old negro and the detective, Mr. Hunter Beagle, seem to have been
+taken from life and are carefully elaborated. * * The "Art Evolutionist"
+is a very clever portrayal of the creature who is made possible by, and
+subsists upon, the _fads_ for which the present century must ever
+remain responsible.--[_Courier-Journal._
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Four Years in Rebel Capitals, by T. C. DeLeon
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOUR YEARS IN REBEL CAPITALS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 22584.txt or 22584.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/8/22584/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+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.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.