PART II. Chapter IV.

Note: Chapter IV title page number 274 is missing.

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to a larger command. If the President erred, it was only in common with the people whose will he had undertaken to execute, and not from favoritism or partiality, political or personal, toward an officer whom he had never seen.

The 25th of July, 1861, is memorable as the day on which Maj. Gen. John C. Fremont arrived in St. Louis, and entered on his command of the Department of the West; as the day on which Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks (previously in command at Baltimore) reached Harper's Ferry, superseding Gen. Pat-terson; and as that on which Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan arrived in Washington to take command of the Army of the Potomac. His former place, as commander of the Army in West Virginia, was, by an order issued on the same day, given to the hero of Rich Mountain, Maj. Gen. William S. Rose-crans. At Baltimore, Maj. Gen. John A. Dix assumed com¬mand in place of Banks.

For the three months succeeding the battle of Bull Run, the Army of the Potomac, from which the people impatiently awaited worthy deeds to redeem and avenge the former failure, has only the history of rapidly increasing numbers, of improv¬ing organization and discipline, and of the needed preparation, in respect to arms, equipments, supplies and experience of camp life. During this period, the number of men under McClellan's command had come to be estimated at about 200,000. It is believed that the effective force, on the 21st of October, when the first movement commenced, fell but little, if any, short of that number, Meanwhile the Potomac had become substan¬tially closed by a Rebel blockade, injurious to many interests, and hazardous in a military point of view. But the prudent General, guarding himself against premature movements, in accordance with the monition which he saw in the resull of McDowell's advance, deemed it unwise to risk a general action by cooperating with a naval force, as was desired, to reopen navigation on the river.

On the 18th of August, the command at Fortress Monroe was surrendered to Gen. John E. Wool, by Gen. Butler, who proceeded northward to organize a separate expedition, the destination of which was not disclosed.

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In the West stirring events had transpired prior to the arrival of Gen. Fremont at the headquarters of his Department. In Missouri, the Rebel forces had been gradually driven toward the Southwest by the small army under Gens. Lyon and Sigel, with occasional engagements, until finally the insurgents, with greatly increased numbers, had made a stand at a place nine miles beyond Springfield, on Wilson's Creek. Here, on the 10th of August, was fought a memorable battle, which may be termed the second considerable engagement of the war. Gen Lyon, whose entire force appears to have been less than 6,000, attacked the enemy in camp, reported to be 22,000 strong, now under command of Ben. McCulloch. The advance was made In two columns : one under Lyon himself, moving directly on the enemy; the other, making a circuit of fifteen miles toward the left, was to turn the enemy's right. This well-planned movement was commenced on the night of the 9th. Gen. Lyon's column, after resting two hours, following the night's march, resumed its course at four o'clock in the morning, and his advance drove in the enemy's pickets an hour later. The camp was soon in full view, extending for three miles along the valley, and the attack was commenced by Blair's Missouri regi¬ment, while Totten's battery began to shell the tents more distant. The Iowa First and two Kansas regiments were also brought up. A cavalry charge of the enemy was met and repulsed. Another attack, about nine o'clock, somewhat stag¬gered our forces, and in placing himself at the head of the Iowa regiment, to lead a bayonet charge, Gen. Lyon, who had already received three wounds that morning, was shot through the breast by a rifle ball and fell dead on the field. The last Rebel advance, made about one o'clock in the afternoon, was repulsed.

The movement under Gen. Sigel was successful at first, and resulted in the destruction of the enemy's tents and entire baggage train, about noon. Sigel's column, however, was obliged at length to give way. Both columns now retired toward Springfield, the entire loss being reported as eight hundred in killed and wounded. The enemy is believed to have suffered heavily, especially from the well-directed fire of our artillery.

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He did not pursue our forces, which were led away by Gen. Sigel without confusion or disorder. Although not successful in occupying the enemy's position, yet the partial advantages gained, with so great a disparity of numbers, left a very different moral impression from that of the defeat at Manassas, on the 21st of July.

The loss of Nathaniel Lyon would have been a dear price for the most decided victory. As a General, as a patriot, as a man, his name will remain one of the brightest among those of the memorable heroes of his time.

Gen. Fremont, on his arrival at St. Louis, had set about organizing his forces for an energetic campaign, not only to restore order in Missouri, but also to gain control of the Mississippi river. Volunteers in great numbers sought service under him, his name awakening an enthusiasm, particularly among citizens of German origin, beyond that of any other commander. The operations began under Lyon and Sigel were allowed to continue, substantially following out the plans already formed, while he was carefully fortifying the city of St. Louis, and organizing a gunboat service, afterward to become so im¬portant an auxiliary on the Western waters. But a brief time had elapsed, after Fremont's arrival at St. Louis, before the engagement at Wilson's Creek —fought at greatly unequal odds, for which his personal opponents vehemently censured him— and the subsequent retreat, together with the constantly occurring disturbances in various parts of the State, satisfied the commanding General that he had no light task in reestablishing peace and order in Missouri alone. Before he assumed command, Gen. Pope had already been obliged to resort to energetic measures in the northern part of the State, to sup¬press the irregular warfare there prevalent, and to quiet the deadly feuds existing between the two parties into which the communities were divided. The necessity of more stringent proceedings throughout the State was daily becoming manifest. It was under these circumstances that, at length, Gen. Fremont issued his famous order proclaiming martial law, in the following terms:

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HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEPARTMENT, ST. Louis, August 30, 1861.

Circumstances in my judgment are of sufficient urgency to render it necessary that the commanding General of this department should assume the administrative powers of the State Its disorganized condition, helplessness of civil au¬thority, and the total insecurity of life, and devastation of property by bands of murderers and marauders, who infest nearly every county in the State, and avail themselves of public misfortunes, in the vicinity of a hostile force, to gratify private and neighborhood vengeance, and who find an enemy wherever they find plunder, finally demand the severest measures to repress the daily increasing crimes and outrages which are driving off the inhabitants and ruining the State.

In this condition the public safety and success of our arms require unity of purpose, without let or hindrance to the prompt administration of affairs. In order, therefore, to suppress disorders, maintain the public peace, and give security to the persons and property of loyal citizens, I do hereby extend and declare established martial law throughout the State of Missouri. The lines of the army occupation in this State are for the present declared to extend from Leavenworth, by way of posts of Jefferson City, Rolla and Ironton, to Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi river. All persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines shall be tried by court-martial, and if found guilty will be shot. Real aad personal property of those who shall take up arms against the United States, or who shall be directly proven to have taken an active part with their enemies in the field, is declared confiscated to public use, and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free men.

All persons who shall be proven to have destroyed, after the publication of this order, railroad tracks, bridges, or telegraph lines, shall suffer the extreme penalty of the law. All persons engaged in treasonable correspondence, in giving or procuring aid to the enemy, in fermenting turmoil, and disturbing public tranquillity, by creating or circulating false reports, or incendiary documents, are warned that they are exposing themselves.

All persons who have been led away from allegiance, are required to return to their homes forthwith. Any such absence, without sufficient cause, will be held to be presumptive evidence against them. The object of this declaration is to place in the hands of military authorities power to give instantaneous effect to the existing laws, and supply such deficiencies as the conditions of the war demand; but it is not in

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tended to suspend the ordinary tribunals of the country, where law will be administered by civil officers in the usual manner, and with their customary authority, while the same can be peaceably administered.

The commanding General will labor vigilantly for the public welfare, and, by his efforts for their safety, hopes to obtain not only acquiescence, but the active support of the people of the country.

J. C. FREMONT, Major General Commanding.

An order of this character could not fail to become a topic of general discussion throughout the land. The attention of the President was early called to the subject, and the strongest opposition was manifested to the proposed exercise of the military power, by a subordinate commander, for the confisca¬tion of slave property. This sentiment was clearly expressed in a letter to the President, by the Hon. Joseph Holt, under date of September 12th, in which he said:

The late act of Congress providing for the confiscation of the estates of persons in open rebellion against the Government was, as a necessary war measure, accepted and fully approved by the loyal men of the country. It limited the penalty of confiscation to property actually employed in the service of the rebellion with the knowledge and consent of its owners, and, instead of emancipating slaves thus employed, left their status to be determined either by the Courts of the United States or by subsequent legislation. The proclamation, however, of Gen. Fremont, under date of the 80th of August, transcends, and, of coarse, violates the law in both these particulars, and declares that the property of rebels, whether used in support of" the rebellion or not, shall be confiscated, and if consisting in slaves, that they shall be at once manumitted. The act of Congress referred to was believed to embody the conservative policy of your Administration upon this delicate and perplexing question, and hence the loyal men of the Border Slave States have felt relieved of all fears of any attempt, on the part of the Government of the United States to liberate suddenly in their midst a population unprepared for freedom, and whose presence could not fail to prove a painful apprehension, if not a terror, to the homes and families of all. You may, therefore, well judge of the alarm and condemnation with which the Union-loving citizens of Kentucky—the State

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with whose popular sentiment I am best acquainted —have read this proclamation.

The hope is earnestly indulged by them as it is by myself, that this paper was issued under the pressure of military necessity which Gen. Fremont believed justified the step, but that in the particulars specified it has not your approbation and will not be enforced in derogation of law. The magnitude of the interest at stake, and my extreme desire that by no misapprehension of your sentiments or purposes shall the power and fervor of the loyalty of Kentucky be at this moment abated or chilled, must be my apology for the frankness with which I have addressed you, and for the request I venture to make of an expression of your views upon the points of Gen. Fremont's proclamation on which I have commented.

The President had already written and transmitted the fol-lowing letter to Gen. Fremont, expressing in definite terms, as a public order, what had been before more privately indicated to him, immediately after that officer's action on this subject was known:

WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 11, 1861. Major

General John C. Fremont:

SIR: Yours of the 8th, in answer to mine of the 2d inst., is just received. Assured that you, upon the ground, could better judge of the necessities of your position than I could at this distance, on seeing your proclamation of August 30, I per¬ceived no general objection to it; the particular clause, how¬ever, in relation to the confiscation of property and the liberation of slaves appeared to me to be objectionable in its non-conformity to the act of Congress, passed the 6th of last August, upon the same subjects, and hence I wrote you, expressing my wish that that clause should be modified accordingly. Your answer just received expresses the preference on your part that I should make an open order for the modification, which I very cheerfully do. It is, therefore, ordered that the said clause of the said proclamation be so modified, held, and construed as to conform with and not to transcend the provisions on the same subject contained in the act of Congress entitled "An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes," approved August 6, 1861, and that said act be published at length with this order.

Your obedient servant,

A. LINCOLN.

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It will bo observed that this modification merely requires the General commanding in the Department of the West " to conform with, and not to transcend, the provisions" of the Confiscation Act in regard to the slaves of Rebels; in other words, it merely required obedience to the law. At the present time, in view of what the President has since done, as Commander-in-chief of the Army, as well as of his sentiments on Slavery clearly set forth, previously, on all proper occasions, no word is needed to prevent misapprehension as to this Executive order.

By a timely movement, anticipating the contemplated advance of Gen. Polk from Hickman and Columbus, Gen. Grant, of Fremont's command, on the 6th of September, occupied Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee river—a position vir¬tually flanking that of the Rebel forces on the Mississippi, in Kentucky. Com. A. II. Foote had been ordered, a few days previously, (August 26,) to the command of the naval forces on the Western waters. Price and Jackson were actively engaged in endeavoring to raise a formidable army, and to overrun the State. Their attack on our forces at Lexington had terminated in the surrender of Col. Mulligan and the men under him at that place, on the 12th of September. Fremont at length prepared to take the field in person against the insurgents, in Southwestern Missouri. He collected all the troops which he regarded as properly available for the purpose, and, leaving Jefferson City for Sedalia, on the 8th of October seemed to be energetically commencing a campaign which many thought to have been quite too long deferred. Price's force gradually fell back once more before the National columns, and were finally reported to be preparing to give battle near Springfield. Here Fremont, who was apparently on the point of engaging the enemy, was overtaken by the order relieving him from his command. He was temporarily succeeded by Gen. Hunter, who soon handed over the command to Gen. Halleck.

Gen. Fremont had been created a Major General by the vol¬untary action of President Lincoln, from a conviction of the fitness of such appointment. When assigned to the command of the Army of the West he was received in that quarter with

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general enthusiasm, despite the seeming tardiness with which he entered OB his work. Of the charges made against him, and of the grounds which seemed to make a change in the command advisable, it is enough to say here that they did not so far influence the mind of Mr. Lincoln against Gen. Fremont, as to prevent his subsequently assigning him a high military trust The President's action was then, and still may be, to some extent misconstrued; but no candid person, with the facts before him will question that honorable and patriotic motives led to an order which was, on mere personal considerations, reluc¬tantly given.

Under Gen. Hunter, our forces retreated without a battle, and the Rebel hordes again advanced over the already devastated country beyond and around Springfield. It was at the latter place, which had been speedily reoccupied by Price, that, on the 25th of October, Fremont's body guard, of three hundred mounted men, under Maj. Zagonyi, charged upon and routed two thousand Rebels, drawn up in line of battle, dispersed them pell-mell, and retired without serious loss —a deed of heroic daring unsurpassed in any war.

In West Virginia, after the departure of McClellan, our army found its labors by no means so completely terminated as that officer had supposed at the date of his glowing dispatch, announcing the victory at Rich Mountain. On the contrary, serious work was still to be done, and there were active enemies to meet, not only under such Brigadiers as Floyd and Wise, but also under Gen. Robert E. Lee. The well-planned schemes of all these Rebel leaders for subjugating the loyal people of that section were foiled by Gen. Rosecrans, but not without his utmost vigilance, and only after labors, hardships and battles, which were by DO means unimportant in comparison with those of the earlier summer. On the 10th of September, Floyd was beaten in the battle of Carnifex Ferry, while Lee's attempt to lead a force through Greenbriar County to cooperate in crushing the Ohio forces, which had advanced up the Kanawha and the Gauley, ended at Big Sewell Mountain, in utter failure. It was only on the sudden and final retreat of Floyd, from Gauley Bridge, eluding the grasp of Gen. Benham, to the disappoint-

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ment of Rosecrans, that, on the 20th of November, West Virginia was substantially freed from armed Rebels, and the campaign in that quarter ended.

During the progress of these events, of the autumn of 1861, two expeditions were in preparation, one under the com¬mand of Gen. Butler, and the other under Gen. Burnside. These expeditions, undertaken against the persistent opposition of McClellan, were regarded with interest and hope by the people, who were becoming wearied with the long inaction of the Army of the Potomac, in the presence of an enemy notoriously much inferior in numbers. The fine condition of the roads and the pleasant weather seemed to invite the long-delayed and long-expected advance, which the public had again and again been led to believe, by intimations from headquarters, was about to be commenced. One, at least, of the expeditions named, was for a time believed to be Intended to aid McClellan's promised movement, by ascending the Rappahannock or other¬wise. Without the slightest detriment, twenty thousand men might have been spared for such a purpose from the already too cumbersome army near Washington. Yet so little did this suit the policy of the commanding General, in whom there was still confidence, that the forces for Butler and Burnside were raised elsewhere, and they were so delayed, in consequence, as in part to thwart their original purpose, and to impair their effectiveness. That under Gen. Butler, acting jointly with a naval force under Com. Stringham, took possession of the Hatteras forts on the 29th of August. The Rebel commandant, Barron, formerly of the United States Navy, after enduring a severe cannonade from the fleet, surrendered the position, with the officers and soldiers under him. This intelligence was received by the country with lively satisfaction, at a time when some reassuring success was specially needed.

In the month of August the Rebels had occupied Munson's Hill, in full view of the capital, and six or seven miles distant in a right line. The force thus advanced was not formidable, and the character of the works thrown up there, as discovered on the voluntary withdrawal of the occupants, clearly showed that their purpose was not serious. They held this position

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until the 28th of September, on which day a foraging party went out eight miles on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, without encountering any enemy, or finding any definite trace of his previous presence in that direction, The prompt occupation of Munson's Hill, after its evacuation, by a force which McClellan,with his staff, had accompanied in person, electrified the people with the hope of some decisive action, on the part of the new commander. He shortly returned to Washington, however, and nearly another month passed before there were again visible symptoms of vitality —beyond that of military reviews and rhetorical army orders, or occasional reconnoissances, magnified by admiring correspondents— in the Army of the Potomac.

The movement of Oct. 21st, resulting in the well-known affair at Ball's Bluff, was scarcely less disastrous in its effects than the failure at Bull Run on the 21st of July. Coming after such complete and thorough preparation; following such manifold and inexcusable delays; and transpiring as the first of the weighty manifestations of McClellan's generalship, the consequence could only be mortification to the Administration, and discouragement, mingled with indignation, to the country at large. In this ill-starred fight fell Col. E. D. Baker, of Mexican War fame, the eloquent Senator from Oregon. The loss on our side was officially stated as 150 killed or drowned, 250 wounded, and 500 prisoners. The whole force engaged was given as 2,100. The rebel Gen. Evans, commanding on the other side, states his own loss in killed and wounded as 158. He estimates the Union loss at 1,300 killed, wounded and drowned, and asserts that 710 prisoners were captured, making a total of over 2,000, nearly equal to the whole num¬ber actively engaged. This exaggerated claim was not needed to show the destructive character of the engagement. In his general order on this occasion, dated Oct. 25, McClellan gave this version of the disaster:

The gallantry and discipline there displayed deserved a more fortunate result; but situated as these troops were —cut ofl alike from retreat and reinforcements, and attacked by an overwhelming force—five thousand against one thousand seven

285

hundred—it was not possible that the issue could have been successful.

The fact that Gen. McCall's division was almost simultaneously withdrawn by Gen. McClellan from a position effectually within supporting distance on the Virginia side of the river, instead of being advanced to cooperate in the movement on Leesburg, has not been satisfactorily explained. It is fair to presume, however, that there was no more culpable motive for this than a desire for the presence of McCall's troops at a grand review which was progressing near Lewinsville, while Col. Baker and his men were pushed forward into the jaws of destruction.

With the light thrown on this affair by subsequent investigations, it may well be doubted whether the President should not have viewed this result, after three months of wearisome and unaccountable inaction, as sufficient cause for withdrawing all further confidence from the commanding General. For the time, however, it was made to appear that the blame should rest elsewhere, and Gen. C. P. Stone, the subordinate in the field, became the scapegoat for his superior.

Despite the popular impatience, and all the circumstances favoring prompt action, nothing more was attempted by the commander of the Army of the Potomac —scarcely so much as a picket skirmish disturbed the general stagnation during those calm, dry days —for the next two months.

To Gen. Scott's generous appreciation, perhaps, more than "to any other circumstance, was due the confidence extended by President Lincoln, at the outset, to Gen. McClellan, unknown as he was to almost every one else at Washington. His affiliations had formerly been with another class of public men, the principal of whom were now actively engaged in rebellion. With Jefferson Davis in particular, he seems to have been a youthful favorite, as his selection for a place on the Crimean Commission attests. Gen. Scott had formed a favorable opinion of the young Lieutenant in Mexico, and had very essen¬tially aided in securing him credit with the present Adminis¬tration. Of his subsequent deportment toward Gen. Scott,

286

this is not the place to speak, further than to say that the veteran Lieutenant General, his immediate superior, keenly felt the disrespectful bearing of his subordinate.

Increasing physical infirmity led the Lieutenant General to desire relief from all active duties, and from apparent responsibility for acts in which he really had no share. Directly after the affair at Ball's Bluff, he made known this wish to the President. The request was one which, urged as it was, could not be refused. The following is the President's order on this subject:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, Nov. 1, 1861, On the 1st day of November, A. D. 1861, upon bis own application to the President of the United States, Brevet Lieut. Gen. Winfield Scott is ordered to be placed, and hereby is placed, upon the list of retired officers of the Army of the United States, without reduction in his current pay, subsistence or allowances.

The American people will hear with sadness and deep emotion that Gen. Scott has withdrawn from the active control of the army, while the President and the unanimous Cabinet ex¬press their own and the nation's sympathy in his personal affliction, and their profound sense of the important public services rendered by him to his country during his long and brilliant career, among which will ever be gratefully distin¬guished his faithful devotion to the Constitution, the Union and the flag, when assailed by a parricidal rebellion.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

This order was read to Gen. Scott, at his residence, by the President, the Cabinet being present. The veteran General replied;

PRESIDENT: This honor overwhelms me. It overpays all services I have attempted to render to my country. If I had any claims before, they are all obliterated by this expression of approval by the President, with the unanimous support of his Cabinet, I know the President and this Cabinet well —I know that the country has placed its interests, in this trying crisis. in safe keeping. Their counsels are wise. Their labors are untiring as they are loyal, and their course is the right one.

President, you must excuse me; I am unable to stand longer to give utterance to the feelings of gratitude which oppress me. In my retirement I shall offer up my prayer to God for this

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rection against the Federal Government, to which you have again directed my attention, in your letter of July 20, has received my most attentive consideration. It is the desire of the President that all existing rights in all the States be fully respected and maintained. The war now prosecuted on the part of the Federal Government is a war for the Union, for the preservation of all the constitutional rights of the States and the citizens of the States in the Union; hence no question can arise as to fugitives from service within the States and Terri-tories in which the authority of the Union is fully acknowl edged. The ordinary forms of judicial proceedings must be respected by the military and civil authorities alike for the enforcement of legal forms. But in the States wholly or in part under insurrectionary control, where the laws of the United States are so far opposed and resisted that they can not be effectually enforced, it is obvious that the rights dependent upon the execution of these laws must temporarily fail, and it is equally obvious that the rights dependent on the laws of the States within which military operations are conducted must necessarily be subordinate to the military exigences created by the insurrection, if not wholly forfeited by the treasonable conduct of the parties claiming them. To this the general rule of the right to service forms an exception. The act of Congress approved Aug. 6, 1861, declares that if persons held to service shall be employed in hostility to the United States, the right to their services shall be discharged therefrom. It follows of necessity that no claim can be recognized by the military authority of the Union to the services of such persons when fugitives.

A more difficult question is presented in respect to persons escaping from the service of loyal masters. It is quite apparent that the laws of the State under which only the services of such fugitives can be claimed must needs be wholly or almost wholly superseded, as to the remedies, by the insurrection and the military measures necessitated by it; and it is equally apparent that the substitution of military for judicial measures for the enforcement of such claims must be attended by great inconvenience, embarrassments and injuries. Under these cir¬cumstances, it seems quite clear that the substantial rights of loyal masters are still best protected by receiving such fugitives as well as fugitives from disloyal masters, into the service of the United States, and employing them under such organizations and in such occupations as circumstances may suggest or require. Of course a record should be kept showing the names and descriptions of the fugitives, the names and characters, as loyal or disloyal, of their masters, and such facts as may be

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necessary to a correct understanding of the circumstances of each case.

After tranquillity shall have been restored upon the return of peace, Congress will doubtless properly provide for all the persons thus received into the service of the Union, and for a just compensation to loyal masters. In this way only, it would seem, can the duty and safety of the Government and just rights of all be fully reconciled and harmonized. You will, therefore, consider yourself in structed to govern your future action in respect to fugitives from service by the premises herein stated, and will report from time to time, and at least twice in each month, your action in the premises to this Department. You will, however, neither authorize nor permit any interference by the troops under your command with the servants of peaceable citizens in a house or field, nor will you in any manner encourage such citizens to leave the lawful service of their masters, nor will you, except in cases where the public good may seem to require it, prevent the voluntary return of any fugitive to the service from which he may have escaped. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War. To MAJ. GEN. BUTLER, Commanding Department of Virginia, Fortress Monroe.

On the 6th of November, a force tinder Gens. Grant and McClernand left Cairo on transports for the purpose of breaking up a Rebel camp on the Missouri side of the Mississippi river, nearly opposite Columbus, the headquarters of Gen. Polk. The whole number of men engaged in this expedition, including a Chicago battery and two companies of cavalry, was about 3,500. The gunboats Tyler and Lexington accompanied them. The troops effected a landing and were formed in line of battle about eight o'clock the following morning, and at once advanced upon the Rebel works. The Rebels, under Gen. Cheatham, met this attack, but were driven back over the wooded field, fighting from tree to tree, into and through their camp. Twelve guns were captured from the Rebels, their camp burned, and baggage, horses, and many prisoners were taken. Reinforcements from Columbus subsequently crossed to Rel-mont, compelling the Union forces to return to their transports, under cover of the gunboats. Though a decided success in

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the early part of the day, the engagement terminated less favorably, and victory was claimed by the Rebels.

About the same time, it is worthy of note, a gunboat reconnoissance was made to Fort Donelson. The movement at Belmont, made by order of Gen. Fremont, perhaps aided another ere long to be undertaken in the latter direction, as well as the advance into Southwestern Missouri, then in progress.

A large force, under Gen. W. T. Sherman, had meanwhile advanced as far as Bowling Green, to meet an invasion of Kentucky under the Rebel Gen. Bragg, while on the left of Sherman, Gen. William Nelson, on the 8th, gained a decisive victory over the Rebels, under Col. Williams, clearing the northeastern part of the State of invaders. Thus the prompt occupation of Paducah by Gen. Grant, the advance of Sherman, and the energy of Nelson, had defeated a well-devised plan of the Rebels for overrunning and subjugating Kentucky. Gen. Buckaer, not long after his interview with McClellan at Cincinnati, in June, had thrown off the mask, and was zealously engaged in an attempt to draw Kentucky into the Secession gulf-stream, and to gather a large force of Kentuckians for the Rebel Army. In the latter purpose he was not without success.

On the 10th of November, Gen. H. W. Halleok was appointed to the command of the Department of the West, in the place of Gen. Fremont. At the same date Gen. W. T. Sherman, having lately resigned his command in Kentucky, Gen.D. C. Buell took that General's place.

During the Summer and Autumn, the Navy Department had manifested great energy in collecting the before scattered navy, and in fitting out, equipping and. manning for service on the seas and navigable rivers, where available, an adequate force of war vessels, gunboats and transports. A blockade of remarkable stringency, under circumstances so adverse, had been maintained along our immense sea-coast, and numerous prizes had rewarded the vigilance of our naval commanders and seamen. Blockade-running, though frequently attempted, and sometimes too successful, had become hazardous, and com¬munication with foreign countries was but casual, and attended with constant peril The capture of the forts at Hatteras Inlet

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effectually closed one avenue of blockade running, and the Port Royal expedition was of like value in sealing another important harbor.

On the 12th of October, the steamer Theodora evaded the blockading fleet off Charleston, and went to sea with two noted Rebel leaders on board, James M. Mason and John Slidell, recently Senators of the United States, now "accredited," respectively, to the Governments of England and France, as Representatives of the Davis Confederacy. Their immediate destination was Cardenas, with the intention of proceeding to Europe by steamer from Havana. At the time of the arrival of these emissaries in Cuba, Com. Wilkes, cruising for the Rebel privateer Sumter, was at Cienfuegos, on the southern coast of that island. Having been notified by Consul Shufeldt, he made all haste to intercept the Theodora on her return, but on arriving at Havana, Oct. 31st, he found she had already gone, and that Mason and Slidell were waiting there, intending to leave for St, Thomas in the British Mail steamer Trent. Com. Wilkes took position with his vessel, the San Jacinto, to intercept the Trent, designing to make prisoners of her two diplomatic passengers. This purpose he accomplished on the 8th of November. The intelligence of this capture, of course, created no little excite¬ment in this country and in Europe. As involving a question of international rights and jurisdiction, the event was widely discussed, while the loyal sentiment of the people undeniably went strongly with Com. "Wilkes in his bold action. Secretary Welles promptly congratulated that officer, complimenting him, and his subordinates and crew —fully appreciating the worthy motive, and the energy of the procedure. Meanwhile, Mason and Slidell, having arrived at New York, were transferred to close quarters at Fort Warren, in Boston harbor.