McClellan was one of a commission sent by the United States government to examine the military systems of Europe, and to report on the better organization of the American army. He made an important report, on his return, and then retired from the service, and became president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. He was living in Cincinnati when the war broke out, and the governor of Ohio at once commissioned him major general of the Ohio militia. He had most winning qualities and an unblemished character, so that he attached every one who came in contact with him. Near the close of the war, he became the Democratic candidate for the Presidency. He was elected governor of New Jersey in 1877, and died at Orange, in that State, October 29, 1885.

operations, was placed in command. He immediately set about organizing the Army of the Potomac, at Alexandria, in preparation for a second advance. The Confederacy also spent the summer and autumn of 1861 in organizing its Army of Northern Virginia, under General Beauregard.

Aug. 30, 1861.

192. The First Blow at Slavery. — Congress had passed an act confiscating property used in the insurrection, including any slaves employed in service hostile to the United States. General Fremont, who had been made commander of the forces in the West, issued a proclamation declaring the slaves of any person who had taken up arms against the Union to be thereby freed from slavery. President Lincoln countermanded this order. He was unwilling to estrange those slaveholders, especially in Kentucky, who were still loyal to the Union. He was, besides, not ready, and he did not believe the people were ready, to regard the war for the Union as a war to put down slavery. Some of the Union commanders even went so far as to send back slaves who had left their masters and had come into the Union lines.1

193. The South and Europe. Congress had declared the Southern ports blockaded, but it could not at once bring together a navy large enough to keep vessels from entering or leaving those ports. The South not only sent out vessels laden with cotton to the West Indies and to Europe, but received in return military supplies of all kinds. Of course the great bulk of business between the North and the South had stopped, although much clandestine traffic and correspondence went on across the borders.

The South had never had manufactures to any extent, and

1 One of the most ingenious solutions of the troublesome problem of dealing with slavery in the region occupied by troops was that devised by General B. F. Butler, who was in command at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, in the summer of 1861. Shortly after the secession of Virginia, some runaway slaves came into his camp, and the Virginian authorities demanded that they should be given up. Butler refused on the ground that they were "contraband of war." The term was caught up, and not only during the war, but for some time after, contraband was a familiar name for the negro.

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had no variety of resources. Heretofore she had sold her cotton, rice, tobacco, and sugar to the Northern States and Europe, and bought in return what she needed. It was to Europe now that she looked for help. The commercial and manufacturing countries of Europe saw the opportunity to increase their trade. English merchants, especially, were quick to take advantage of it, and the ports of English islands lying near the Southern States became at once very busy.

194. The Trent Affair and the Alabama. — England and France issued proclamations of neutrality, and the Confederacy was very desirous of being recognized by them as an independent power. Mr. Mason and Mr. Slidell, formerly United States senators, were therefore sent by the Confederacy as commissioners to London and Paris. They made their way to Havana, and at that port embarked on the English mail steamer Trent. After the Trent had left the harbor, Captain Charles Wilkes, of the United States steamship San Jacinto, who had been watching for them, stopped the steamer and carried off the commissioners.

Nov. 5,

1861.

This act caused great excitement in England, and for a while there was danger that the United States would be at war with England as well as with the Confederacy. Such an event would have been full of peril. Moreover, Captain Wilkes had gone beyond his authority. The government, therefore, without censuring him, admitted that he was in the wrong, and gave up the commissioners to England.

Great Britain did not recognize the independence of the Confederacy; but English shipbuilders and merchants built cruisers which were manned chiefly by British sailors, while commissioned by the Confederacy and commanded by Confederate officers. They often carried the British flag until they had come upon an unsuspecting vessel sailing from a Union port, when they made a prize of it. Great numbers of American ships were thus captured or destroyed. The English government shut its eyes when the Confederate cruisers used the British flag and sailed into and out of the British ports. It

was warned that one of these, the Alabama, which afterward did much mischief, had been built and equipped in Liverpool, and was about to sail. Everybody knew its purpose, but the government took no pains to stop the vessel.

Attitude of Great Britain. The promptness with which Great Britain prepared for war at the time of the Trent affair; the repeated expression of sympathy with the Confederacy given by the ruling classes there; the indifference of the government, by which Confederate cruisers were allowed to be supplied and sent out of English ports to attack American vessels, all these things served to estrange the United States from England. At the same time, not a few Englishmen had faith in the Union and advocated the unpopular Union cause. The cotton spinners of England, though they were brought to great distress by the closing of Southern ports, were very generally in sympathy with the Union. There were a few men of influence, also, who believed that the best hopes of man, both in England and in America, were bound up in the success of the Union. By speeches, by newspaper articles, and by other means, they aimed to keep Great Britain from recognizing the independence of the Confederacy.1

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195. Forts Henry and Donelson. The people at the North had grown impatient over the long delay to make a forward movement, and in January, 1862, President Lincoln ordered a general advance of land and naval forces. The order was earliest obeyed at the West. The Confederates had built Fort Henry on the Tennessee and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, to prevent access by river into the State of Tennessee. The first attacks were made on these defenses. General Ulysses S. Grant 2 was in command of the land forces, and

1 Among the strong supporters of the Union cause in Great Britain were John Bright, W. E. Forster, the Duke of Argyll, and Thomas Hughes, the author of Tom Brown's School Days. The Queen, also, strongly advised by Prince Albert, checked the rashness of the government.

2 General Grant was born at Point Pleasant, Glenmont County, Ohio, April 27, 1822. His father, Jesse Root Grant, lived to a good old age, so that

Commodore Foote, of the gunboats, which undertook to reduce these works.

1862.

Fort Henry was first assailed and captured; the com- Feb. 6, bined forces then appeared before Fort Donelson, and after a succession of hard fights forced the commander to ask for terms. General Grant replied: "No terms except Feb. 16, unconditional and immediate surrender can be ac- 1862. cepted. I propose to move immediately upon your

works." This terse declaration gave General Grant distinction, and caused the country, eager to find a great military leader, to follow his career closely.

196. The Battle of Shiloh. - Fort Donelson surrendered; and the Confederate forces of the West, under General Albert Sidney Johnston, retired to Corinth, Mississippi. Here General Johnston received reënforcements, and made a brilliant attack upon General Grant's army, which was lying at Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, on the Tennessee River. A terrible battle was fought, in which the Confederates were at first

he was able to follow the distinguished course of his son. The name given to the future general and President was Hiram Ulysses, and when Jesse Grant secured for his son an appointment to West Point, by some accident the papers accompanying the application bore the name Ulysses Sidney Grant. The only change which the student could obtain was from Sidney to Simpson, his mother's maiden name, and thenceforward he wrote his name Ulysses Simpson Grant. He did not take high rank at West Point, where he was graduated in 1843, but in the Mexican War, which followed shortly after, he served under both Taylor and Scott and took part in every battle except Buena Vista. He won the title of captain by his gallantry. He was married to Miss Julia Dent in 1848, and spent four years with his wife in garrison in Sackett's Harbor and Detroit. He was ordered to the Pacific coast in 1852, and, forced to go alone, he wearied of the monotony of army life in peace, resigned his commission, and took up the occupation of farmer near St. Louis. Afterward, to better his fortunes, he went to Galena and joined his brothers in the trade of their father, who was a tanner. It was while he was living in Galena that the war broke out, and Grant raised a company of volunteers. Men of military training were in demand as officers, and after being appointed colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois regiment, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general, and serving at first under Fremont, his military ability quickly pushed him to the front. His biography after this date belongs to general history, and will be found recorded in the text.