11. The attention of the American people was next directed to explorations in the Arctic Ocean. In 1845 Sir John Franklin, a brave English seaman, went on a voyage of discovery to the North. Years went by, and no tidings came from the daring sailor. Other expeditions were sent in search, but returned without success. In 1853 an Arctic squadron was equipped, the command of which was given to Dr. Elisha Kent Kane; but the expedition returned without the discovery of Franklin.
12. During the administrations of Taylor and Fillmore, many distinguished men fell by the hand of death. On the 31st of March, 1850, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina passed away. His death was much lamented, especially in his own State, to whose interests he had devoted the energies of his life. Then followed the death of the President; and then, on the 28th June, 1852, the great Henry Clay sank to rest. On the 24th of the following October, Daniel Webster died at his home at Marshfield, Massachusetts. The office of Secretary of State was then conferred on Edward Everett.
13. The political parties again marshaled their forces. Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire appeared as the candidate of the Democratic party, and General Winfield Scott as the choice of the Whigs. The question at issue before the country was the Compromise Act of 1850. Both the Whig and Democratic platforms stoutly reaffirmed the doctrines of the Omnibus Bill. A third party arose, however, whose members declared that all the Territories of the United States ought to be free. John P. Hale of New Hampshire was put forward as the candidate of this Free Soil party. Mr. Pierce was elected by a large majority, and William R. King of Alabama was chosen Vice-president.
THE new chief magistrate was a native of New Hampshire, a graduate of Bowdoin College, and a statesman of considerable abilities. On account of ill health, Mr. King, the Vice-president, was sojourning in Cuba. Growing more feeble, he returned to Alabama, where he died in April, 1853. William L. Marcy of New York was chosen as Secretary of State.
Franklin Pierce.
2. In 1853 a corps of engineers was sent out to explore the route for a Pacific Railroad. The enterprise was at first regarded as visionary and impossible. In the same year, the southwestern boundary was settled, by purchase of the claim of Mexico. The territory thus acquired is known as the Gadsden Purchase.
3. In the same year intercourse was opened between the United States and Japan. Hitherto the Japanese ports had been closed against the vessels of Christian nations. In order to remove this restriction, Commodore Perry sailed into the Bay of Yeddo, and prepared the way for a treaty, by which the privileges of commerce were granted to American merchantmen.
4. On the very day of Perry's introduction to the Emperor, the Crystal Palace was opened in New York for the World's Fair. The palace was built of iron and glass. Specimens of the arts and manufactures of all nations were put on exhibition within the building.
5. In January of 1854, Senator Douglas of Illinois brought forward a proposition to organize Kansas and Nebraska. A clause was inserted in the bill providing that the people of the territories should decide for themselves whether the new States should be free or slaveholding. This was a repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1821. After several months' debate, Mr. Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Bill, was finally passed.
6. Whether Kansas should admit slavery now depended upon the vote of the people. The territory was soon filled with an agitated mass of people, thousands of whom had been sent thither to vote. In the elections of 1854-55, the pro-slavery party was triumphant. The State Legislature at Lecompton framed a constitution permitting slavery. The Free Soil party, declaring the elections to have been illegal, assembled at Topeka, and framed a constitution excluding slavery. Civil war broke out between the factions. The hostile parties were quieted, but the agitation extended to all parts of the Union. The Kansas question became the issue in the presidential election of 1856.
7. James Buchanan of Pennsylvania was nominated as the Democratic candidate. He planted himself on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and secured a heavy vote both North and South. As the candidate of the Free Soil or People's party, John C. Fremont of California was brought forward. The exclusion of slavery from all the Territories was the principle of the Free Soil platform. The American or Know Nothing party nominated Millard Fillmore. Mr. Buchanan was elected by a large majority, while the choice for the Vice-presidency fell on John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky.
JAMES Buchanan was a native of Pennsylvania, born on the 13th of April, 1791. In 1831 he was appointed Minister to Russia, was afterwards senator of the United States, and Secretary of State under President Polk. In 1853 he received the appointment of Minister to Great Britain. As Secretary of State in the new cabinet, General Lewis Cass of Michigan was chosen.
2. In the first year of Buchanan's administration, serious trouble occurred with the Mormons concerning the enforcement of the authority of the United States over Utah. An army was sent to the Territory in 1857 to compel obedience. For awhile the Mormons resisted; but when the President proclaimed a pardon to all who would submit, they yielded; and order was restored.
James Buchanan.
3. The 5th of August, 1858, was noted for the completion of the FIRST TELEGRAPHIC CABLE across the Atlantic. The success of this great work was due to the genius of Cyrus W. Field of New York. The cable was stretched from Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, to Valencia Bay, Ireland. After successful operation for a few weeks the cable ceased to work. In 1858 Minnesota was added to the Union. The population of the new State was a hundred and fifty thousand. In the next year, Oregon, the thirty-third State, was admitted, with a population of forty-eight thousand.
4. The slavery question continued to vex the nation. In 1857 the Supreme Court of the United States, after hearing the cause of Dred Scott, formerly a slave, decided that negroes are not and can not become citizens. Thereupon, in several of the free States, Personal Liberty Bills were passed, to defeat the Fugitive Slave Law. In the fall of 1859, John Brown of Kansas, with a party of twenty-one daring men, captured the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and held his ground for two days. The national troops were called out to suppress the revolt. Thirteen of Brown's men were killed, two made their escape, and the rest were captured. The leader and his six companions were tried by the authorities of Virginia, condemned and hanged.
5. In the presidential canvass of 1860 the candidate of the Republican party was Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. The distinct principle of this party was opposition to the extension of slavery. In April the Democratic convention assembled at Charleston; but the Southern delegates withdrew from the assembly. The rest adjourned to Baltimore and chose Douglas as their standard-bearer. There, also, the delegates from the South reassembled in June, and nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. The American party chose as their candidate John Bell of Tennessee. The contest resulted in the election of Mr. Lincoln.
6. The leaders of the South had declared that the choice of Lincoln for the presidency would be a just cause for the dissolution of the Union. A majority of the cabinet, and a large number of senators and representatives in Congress, were advocates of disunion. It was seen that all the departments of the government would shortly pass under the control of the Republican party. President Buchanan was not himself a disunionist; but he declared himself not armed with the constitutional power to prevent secession by force.
7. On the 17th of December, 1860, a convention met at Charleston, and after three days passed a resolution that the union hitherto existing between South Carolina and the other States was dissolved. The sentiment of disunion spread with great rapidity. By the first of February, 1861, six other States—Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas—had all passed ordinances of secession. Nearly all the senators and representatives of those States resigned their seats in Congress and gave themselves to the disunion cause.
8. In the secession conventions a few of the speakers denounced disunion as bad and ruinous. In the convention of Georgia, Alexander H. Stephens delivered a powerful oration in which he defended the theory of secession, but urged that the measure was impolitic, unwise, disastrous.
9. On the 4th of February, 1861, delegates from six of the seceded States assembled at Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a new government, called the Confederate States of America. On the 8th, the government was organized by the election of Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, as provisional President, and Alexander H. Stephens, as Vice-president. A few days previous a peace conference met at Washington, and proposed certain amendments to the Constitution. But Congress gave little heed; and the conference adjourned.
10. The country seemed on the verge of ruin. The army was on remote frontiers—the fleet in distant seas. With the exception of Forts Sumter, Moultrie, Pickens, and Monroe, all the important posts in the seceded States had been seized by the Confederate authorities. Early in January, the President sent the Star of the West to reinforce Fort Sumter. But the ship was fired on, and not allowed to land.
ABRAHAM Lincoln was a native of Kentucky, born on the 12th of February, 1809. At the age of seven he was taken to southern Indiana, where his boyhood was passed in poverty and toil. On reaching his majority he removed to Illinois, where he distinguished himself as a lawyer. He gained a national reputation in 1858, when, as the competitor of Stephen A. Douglas, he canvassed Illinois for the United States Senate.
Abraham Lincoln.
2. The new cabinet was organized with William H. Seward of New York as Secretary of State. Salmon P. Chase of Ohio was chosen Secretary of the Treasury, and Simon Cameron, Secretary of War; but he was soon succeeded by Edwin M. Stanton. The secretaryship of the navy was conferred on Gideon Welles. In his inaugural address, the President declared his purpose to repossess the forts and public property which had been seized by the Confederates. On the 12th of March, a futile effort was made by the seceded States to obtain recognition from the national government. Then followed a second attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter.
3. The defences of Charleston were held by seventy-nine men under Major Robert Anderson. With this small force he retired to Fort Sumter. Confederate volunteers flocked to the city, and batteries were built about the harbor. The authorities of the Confederate States determined to anticipate the movement of the government by compelling Anderson to surrender. On the 11th of April, General P. T. Beauregard, commandant of Charleston, sent a flag to Sumter, demanding an evacuation. Major Anderson replied that he should defend the fortress. On the following morning the first gun was fired from a Confederate battery; and a bombardment of thirty-four hours' duration followed. The fort was obliged to capitulate. The honors of war were granted to Anderson and his men.
4. Three days after the fall of Sumter the President issued a call for seventy-five thousand volunteers to serve three months. Two days later Virginia seceded from the Union. On the 6th of May, Arkansas followed, and then North Carolina, on the 20th of the month. In Tennessee there was a powerful opposition to disunion, and it was not until the 8th of June that a secession ordinance could be passed. In Missouri the movement resulted in civil war, while in Kentucky the authorities issued a proclamation of neutrality. The people of Maryland were divided into hostile parties.
5. On the 19th of April, when the Massachusetts volunteers were passing through Baltimore, they were fired upon by the citizens and three men killed. This was the first bloodshed of the war. On the day previous, a body of Confederate soldiers captured the armory of the United States at Harper's Ferry. On the 20th of the month another company obtained possession of the great navy yard at Norfolk. The property thus captured amounted to fully ten millions of dollars. On the 3d of May the President issued a call for eighty-three thousand soldiers to serve for three years or during the war. General Winfield Scott was made commander-in-chief. War ships were sent to blockade the Southern ports. In the seceded States there was boundless activity. The Southern Congress adjourned from Montgomery, to meet on the 20th of July, at Richmond. There Mr. Davis and the officers of his cabinet had assembled to direct the affairs of the government. So stood the antagonistic powers in the beginning of June, 1861. It is appropriate to look briefly into the Causes of the conflict.
THE most general cause of the civil war in the United States was the different construction put upon the Constitution by the people of the North and of the South. A difference of opinion existed as to how that instrument was to be understood. One party held that the Union of the States is indissoluble; that the States are subordinate to the central government; that the acts of Congress are binding on the States; and that all attempts at nullification and disunion are disloyal and treasonable. The other party held that the national Constitution is a compact between sovereign States; that for certain reasons the Union may be dissolved; that the sovereignty of the nation belongs to the individual States; that a State may annul an act of Congress; that the highest allegiance of the citizen is due to his own State; and that nullification and disunion are justifiable and honorable.
2. This question struck into the very heart of the government. It threatened to undo the whole civil structure of the United States. In the earlier history of the country the doctrine of State sovereignty was most advocated in New England. Afterwards the people of that section passed over to the advocacy of national sovereignty, while the people of the South took up the doctrine of State rights. As early as 1831 the right of nullifying an act of Congress was openly advocated in South Carolina. Thus it happened that the belief in State sovereignty became more prevalent in the South than in the North.
3. A second cause of the civil war was the different system of labor in the North and in the South. In the former section the laborers were freemen; in the latter, slaves. In the South the theory was that capital should own labor; in the North that both labor and capital are free. In the beginning all the colonies had been slaveholding. In the Eastern and Middle States the system of slave-labor had been abolished. In the Northwestern Territory slavery was excluded from the beginning. Thus there came to be a dividing line drawn through the Union. Whenever the question of slavery was agitated, a sectional division would arise between the North and the South. The danger arising from this source was increased by several subordinate causes.
4. The first of these was the invention of the Cotton Gin to replace hand-labor in separating the fiber from the seeds of the cotton plant. It was invented in 1793 by Eli Whitney, of Massachusetts, and through its immediate adoption cotton suddenly became the most profitable of all the staples. In proportion to the increased profitableness of cotton, slave-labor grew in demand and slavery became an important and deep-rooted institution.
5. From this time onward, there was constant danger of disunion. In the Missouri Agitation of 1820-21, threats of dissolving the Union were freely made in both the North and the South. When the Missouri Compromise was enacted, it was the hope of Mr. Clay and his fellow-statesmen to save the Union by removing the slavery question from politics.
6. Next came the Nullification Acts of South Carolina. The Southern States had become cotton-producing; the Eastern States had given themselves to manufacturing. The tariff measures favored manufacturers at the expense of producers. Mr. Calhoun proposed to remedy the evil by annulling the laws of Congress; and another compromise was found necessary in order to allay the animosities which had been awakened.
7. The Annexation of Texas led to a renewal of the agitation. Those who opposed the Mexican War did so because of the fact that thereby slavery would be extended. Whether the territory acquired should be made into free or slaveholding States was the question next agitated. This led to the Omnibus Bill, by which the excitement was again allayed.
8. In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Bill opened the question anew. Meanwhile, the character of the Northern and the Southern people had become quite different. In population and wealth the North had far outgrown the South. In 1860 Mr. Lincoln was elected by the votes of the Northern States. The people of the South were exasperated at the choice of a chief-magistrate whom they regarded as hostile to their interests.
9. The third general cause of the war was the want of intercourse between the people of the North and the South. The great railroads ran east and west. Between the North and the South there was little travel. From want of acquaintance the people became estranged, jealous, and suspicious.
10. A fourth cause was the publication of sectional books. During the twenty years preceding the war, many works were published whose popularity depended on the animosity existing between the two sections. In such books the manners and customs of one section were held up to the contempt of the people of the other section. In the North the belief was fostered that the South was given up to inhumanity; while in the South the opinion prevailed that the Northern people were a mean race of cowardly Yankees.
11. The evil influence of demagogues may be cited as the fifth general cause of the war. From 1850 to 1860, American statesmanship and patriotism were at a low ebb. Ambitious and scheming politicians had obtained control of the political parties. The welfare of the country was put aside as of little value. In order to gain power, many unprincipled men in the South were anxious to destroy the Union, while others in the North were willing to abuse the Union for the same purpose.
12. Added to all these causes was a growing public opinion in the North against the institution of slavery itself; a belief that slavery was wrong and ought to be destroyed. This opinion, comparatively feeble at the beginning of the war, was rapidly developed, and had much to do in determining the final character of the conflict.
ON the 24th of May the Union army crossed the Potomac from Washington to Alexandria. At this time Fortress Monroe was held by twelve thousand men, under General B. F. Butler. At Bethel Church, in that vicinity, was stationed a detachment of Confederates. On the 10th of June, a body of Union troops was sent to dislodge them, but was repulsed with considerable loss.
Vicinity of Manassas Junction, 1861.
2. In the last of May, General T. A. Morris moved forward from Parkersburg to Grafton, West Virginia. On the 3d of June he defeated a force of Confederates at Phillippi. General George B. McClellan now took the command, and on the 11th of July gained a victory at Rich Mountain. On the 10th of August, General Floyd, with a detachment of Confederates at Carnifex Ferry, was attacked by General William S. Rosecrans and obliged to retreat. On the 14th of September the Confederates, under General Robert E. Lee, were beaten in an engagement at Cheat Mountain.
3. In the beginning of June, General Robert Patterson marched against Harper's Ferry. On the 11th of the month a division commanded by Colonel Lewis Wallace made a successful onset upon the Confederates at Romney. Patterson then crossed the Potomac and pressed back the Confederate forces to Winchester. Thus far there had been only petty engagements and skirmishes. The time had now come for the first great battle of the war.
4. The main body of the Confederates, under General Beauregard, was concentrated at Manassas Junction, twenty-seven miles west of Alexandria. Another large force, commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston, was in the Shenandoah Valley. The Union army at Alexandria was commanded by General Irwin McDowell, while General Patterson was stationed in front of Johnston. On the 16th of July the national army moved forward, and on the morning of the 21st came upon the Confederate army between Bull Run and Manassas Junction. A general battle ensued, continuing with great severity until noonday. In the crisis of the conflict General Johnston arrived with nearly six thousand fresh troops from the Shenandoah Valley; and in a short time McDowell's army was hurled back in rout and confusion into the defenses of Washington. The Union loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners amounted to two thousand nine hundred and fifty-two; that of the Confederates to two thousand and fifty.
5. Meanwhile, on the 20th of July, the new Confederate government was organized at Richmond. Jefferson Davis, the President, was a man of wide experience in the affairs of state, and considerable reputation as a soldier. He had served in both houses of the national Congress, and as a member of Pierce's cabinet. His decision of character and advocacy of State rights had made him a natural leader of the South.
6. The next military movements were made in Missouri. A convention, called by Governor Jackson in the previous March, had refused to pass an ordinance of secession. But the disunionists were numerous and powerful; and the State became a battlefield. Both Federal and Confederate camps were organized. By capturing the United States arsenal at Liberty, the Confederates obtained a supply of arms and ammunition.
7. They hurried up troops, also, from Arkansas and Texas in order to secure the lead mines in the southwest part of the State. On the 17th of June Lyon defeated Governor Jackson at Booneville, and on the 5th of July the Unionists, led by Colonel Franz Sigel, were again successful in a fight at Carthage. On the 10th of August a hard battle was fought at Wilson's Creek, near Springfield. General Lyon made a daring attack on the Confederates under Generals McCulloch and Price. The Federals at first gained the field, but General Lyon was killed, and his men retreated.
8. General Price now pressed northward to Lexington, which was defended by two thousand six hundred Federals, commanded by Colonel Mulligan. A stubborn defence was made, but Mulligan was obliged to capitulate. On the 16th of October Lexington was retaken by the Federals. General John C. Fremont followed the retreating Confederates as far as Springfield, when he was superseded by General Hunter. The latter retreated to St. Louis, and Price fell back toward Arkansas.
9. The Confederates captured the town of Columbus in Kentucky, and also gathered in force at Belmont, on the opposite bank of the Mississippi. Colonel Ulysses S. Grant, with three thousand Illinois troops, was now sent into Missouri. On the 7th of November he made a successful attack on Belmont; but was afterwards obliged to retreat.
10. After the rout at Bull Run, troops were rapidly hurried to Washington. The aged General Scott retired from active duty, and General McClellan took command of the Army of the Potomac. By October his forces had increased to a hundred and fifty thousand men. On the 21st of that month two thousand troops were sent across the Potomac at Ball's Bluff. Without proper support, the Federals were attacked by a force of Confederates under General Evans, driven to the river, their leader, Colonel Baker, killed, and the whole force routed with a loss of eight hundred men.
11. In the summer of 1861 a naval expedition proceeded to the North Carolina coast, and on the 29th of August captured the forts at Hatteras Inlet. On the 7th of November an armament, under Commodore Samuel F. Du Pont and General Thomas W. Sherman, reached Port Royal, and captured Forts Walker and Beauregard. The blockade became so rigorous that communication between the Confederate States and foreign nations was cut off. In this juncture of affairs, a serious difficulty arose with Great Britain.
George B. McClellan.
12. The Confederate government appointed James M. Mason and John Slidell as ambassadors to France and England. The envoys, escaping from Charleston, reached Havana in safety. At that port they took passage on the British steamer Trent for Europe. On the 8th of November the vessel was overtaken by the United States frigate San Jacinto, commanded by Captain Wilkes. The Trent was hailed and boarded; the two ambassadors were seized, transferred to the San Jacinto, and carried to Boston. When the Trent reached England, the whole kingdom burst out in a blaze of wrath.
13. At first the government of the United States was disposed to defend Captain Wilkes's action. Had such a course been taken, war with Great Britain would have been inevitable. The country was saved from the peril by the diplomacy of William H. Seward, the Secretary of State. When Great Britain demanded reparation for the insult, and the liberation of the prisoners, he replied in a mild, cautious, and very able paper. It was conceded that the seizure of Mason and Slidell was not justifiable according to the law of nations. An apology was made for the wrong done; the Confederate ambassadors were liberated, put on board a vessel, and sent to their destination. So ended the first year of the civil war.
THE Federal forces now numbered about four hundred and fifty thousand men. Of these nearly two hundred thousand, under General McClellan, were encamped near Washington. Another army, commanded by General Buell, was stationed at Louisville, Kentucky.
2. At the beginning of the year the capture of Fort Henry on the Tennessee and Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland, was planned by General Halleck. Commodore Foote was sent up the Tennessee with a fleet of gunboats, and General Grant was ordered to move forward against Fort Henry. Before the land-forces reached that place, the flotilla compelled the evacuation of the fort, the Confederates escaping to Donelson.
3. The Federal gunboats now dropped down the Tennessee and then ascended the Cumberland. Grant pressed on from Fort Henry, and began the siege of Fort Donelson. The defences were manned by ten thousand Confederates, under General Buckner. Grant's force numbered nearly thirty thousand. On the 16th of February Buckner was obliged to surrender. His army became prisoners of war, and all the magazines, stores, and guns of the fort fell into the hands of the Federals.
4. General Grant now ascended the Tennessee to Pittsburg Landing. A camp was established at Shiloh Church, near the river; and here, on the 6th of April, the Union army was attacked by the Confederates, led by Generals Albert S. Johnston and Beauregard. All day long the battle raged with great slaughter on both sides. Night fell on the scene with the conflict undecided; but in the crisis General Buell arrived with strong reinforcements. In the morning General Grant assumed the offensive. General Johnston had been killed, and Beauregard was obliged to retreat to Corinth. The losses in killed, wounded, and missing were more than ten thousand on each side.
5. After the Confederates evacuated Columbus, Kentucky, they fortified Island Number Ten in the Mississippi, opposite New Madrid. Against this place General Pope advanced with a body of Western troops, while Commodore Foote descended the Mississippi with his gunboats. Pope captured New Madrid; and for twenty-three days Island Number Ten was besieged. On the 7th of April the Confederates attempted to escape; but Pope had cut off the retreat, and the garrison, numbering five thousand, was captured. On the 6th of June the city of Memphis was taken by the fleet of Commodore Davis.
6. Early in the year General Curtis pushed forward into Arkansas, and took position at Pea Ridge, among the mountains. Here he was attacked on the 6th of March by a Confederate force of twenty thousand men, which included a large number of Indians from the adjacent Indian Territory. A hard-fought battle ensued, lasting for two days, in which the Federals were victorious.
7. After the destruction of the navy yard at Norfolk, the Confederates had raised the frigate Merrimac, one of the sunken ships, and plated the sides with iron. The vessel was then sent to attack the Union fleet at Fortress Monroe. Reaching that place on the 8th of March, the Merrimac began the work of destruction; and two valuable vessels, the Cumberland and the Congress, were sent to the bottom. During the night, however, a strange ship, called the Monitor, invented by Captain John Ericsson, arrived from New York; and on the following morning the two iron-clad monsters turned their enginery upon each other. After fighting for five hours, the Merrimac was obliged to retire to Norfolk, badly damaged.
Merrimac and Monitor.
8. On the 8th of February a Federal squadron attacked the Confederate fortifications on Roanoke Island. The garrison, nearly three thousand strong, were taken prisoners. Burnside next proceeded against Newbern, and on the 14th of March captured the city. Proceeding southward, he reached the harbor of Beaufort, and on the 25th of April took possession of the town.
9. On the 11th of the same month Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah, surrendered to General Gillmore. Early in April, a powerful squadron, under General Butler and Admiral Farragut, ascended the Mississippi and attacked Forts Jackson and St. Philip, thirty miles above the Gulf. From the 18th to the 24th the fight continued without cessation. At the end of that time Admiral Farragut succeeded in running past the batteries. On the next day he reached New Orleans, and captured the city. General Butler became commandant, and the fortifications were manned with fifteen thousand Federal soldiers. Three days afterwards, Forts Jackson and St. Philip surrendered to Admiral Porter.
10. The Confederates now invaded Kentucky, in two strong divisions, the one led by General Kirby Smith and the other by General Bragg. On the 30th of August Smith's army reached Richmond, and routed the Federals stationed there, with heavy losses. Lexington was taken, and then Frankfort; and Cincinnati was saved from capture only by the exertions of General Wallace. Meanwhile, the army of General Bragg advanced from Chattanooga, and on the 17th of September captured a Federal division of four thousand five hundred men at Mumfordsville. The Confederate general pressed on toward Louisville, and would have taken the city but for the arrival of General Buell. Buell's army was increased to one hundred thousand men. In October he again took the field, and on the 8th of the month overtook General Bragg at Perryville. Here a severe but indecisive battle was fought; and the Confederates, laden with spoils, continued their retreat into east Tennessee.
11. On the 19th of September a hard battle was fought at Iuka, between a Federal army, under Generals Rosecrans and Grant, and a Confederate force, under General Price. The latter was defeated, losing, in addition to his killed and wounded, nearly a thousand prisoners. Rosecrans now took post at Corinth with twenty thousand men; while Grant, with the remainder of the Federal forces, proceeded to Jackson, Tennessee. Generals Van Dorn and Price turned about to recapture Corinth. There, on the 3d of October, another severe battle ensued, which ended, after two days' fighting, in the repulse of the Confederates.
12. In December General Sherman dropped down the river from Memphis to the Yazoo. On the 29th of the month he made an unsuccessful attack on the Confederates at Chickasaw Bayou. The assault was exceedingly disastrous to the Federals, who lost in killed, wounded, and prisoners more than three thousand men.
13. General Rosecrans was now transferred to the command of the Army of the Cumberland, with headquarters at Nashville. General Bragg, on his retirement from Kentucky, had thrown his forces into Murfreesborough. Rosecrans moved forward, and on the 30th of December came upon the Confederates on Stone's River, a short distance northwest of Murfreesborough. On the following morning a furious battle ensued, continuing until nightfall. The Union army was brought to the verge of ruin. But during the night Rosecrans rallied his forces, and at daybreak was ready to renew the conflict. On that day there was a lull. On the morning of the 2d of January Bragg's army again rushed to the onset, gained some successes at first, was then checked, and finally driven back with heavy losses. Bragg withdrew his shattered columns, and filed off toward Chattanooga.