noted. During the 18th two strong divisions of Federals, under Generals Humphrey and Couch, arrived, and it was the intention of the Union commanders to renew the battle on the 19th; but General Lee, wiser than his antagonist, availed himself of the delay, withdrew from his critical position and recrossed the Potomac into Virginia. The great conflict, which had cost the Union army an aggregate of ten thousand men, ended in a drawn battle, in which there was little to be praised except the heroism of the soldiery. To the Confederates, however, the campaign had ended in defeat of their plans. The people of Maryland did not rise in behalf of the Confederate cause, and General Lee was obliged to relinquish the invasion which had cost him in the short space of a month about twenty-five thousand men.

After Antietam there was another lull, and it was late in October before McClellan, following the retreating Confederates, again entered Virginia. The determination of the national government, however, was not abated. The administration was pledged to the suppression of the Rebellion. That Rebellion had now become a mighty war, strongly tending to revolution and a general change of American history. It was the intention of the authorities. to make another advance on Richmond before the coming of winter, and the Union commander was ordered to prepare for such a movement. There was, however, a discord of views between that general and the administration. The latter objected to McClellan's plan of campaign, by which Washington City would be again uncovered to a counter-invasion of the Confederates. It was the desire of the Union general to establish his base of supplies at West Point, on the Pamunkey River; but the President and Secretary of War insisted that he should choose Alexandria as his base of operations. From this point it was proposed to go forward by way of the Orange railroad, through Culpeper to

Gordonsville, and thence by the Virginia Central to its junction with the line reaching from Fredericksburg to Richmond.

The sequel showed that the break between General McClellan and the authorities at Washington was fatal. The whole of October was wasted with delays and November was begun before that commander, with an army of a hundred and twenty thousand men, announced himself ready. for the advance. On the 7th of the month, when the movement was about to begin, he was superseded and his command transferred to General Burnside. Right or wrong, the President at last reached the decision that General McClel lan was a man over-cautious and slow, too prudent and too much absorbed with preliminaries to lead great armies to victory.

With the accession of Burnside the plan of the campaign was at once changed. The new commander would establish his base of supplies at the mouth of Aquia Creek, fifty-five miles below Washington, and from that point move southward through Fredericksburg on his way to Richmond. But there was another great delay in preparation, and General Lee had ample time to discover the purpose of his antagonist and to gather his army on the heights about Fredericksburg. The passage of the Union army across the Rappahannock was not seriously resisted. The movement was effected with little loss or opposition, and on the 12th of December Burnside established his lines on the right bank of the river, from Falmouth to a point opposite the mouth of the Massaponax, three miles below.

Early on the 13th of December a general battle began on the Union left, where Franklin's division was met by that of Stonewall Jackson. At the beginning of the engagement General Meade succeeded in breaking the Confederate line; but the movement was not sustained; the Confeder

ates rallied and drove back the Federals with a loss of about three thousand men. Jackson's loss was almost as great and the result was indecisive. On the center and right, however, the battle went wholly against Burnside. General Sumner's division was ordered against the Confederates on Marye's Hill and the charge was gallantly made; but the attacking columns were mowed down by the thousand and hurled back, while the defenders of the heights hardly lost a man. Time and again the assault was renewed, but always with the same disastrous result. The carnage did not end until darkness fell over the scene of conflict.

General Burnside would have renewed the battle, but his subordinate officers dissuaded him, and on the night of the 15th the whole army was quietly withdrawn to the left bank of the Rappahannock. The Union losses in the battle of Fredericksburg amounted in killed, wounded and prisoners to 11,116 men. The Confederates lost 10,746.

Vol. III.-9

CHAPTER XXVIII.

IF the Civil War had continued with the same results through the year 1863, the revolution attempted by the Confederate leaders must have succeeded. Thus far the conflict had, on the whole, gone in favor of the South. It appeared not improbable that the dissolution of the Union would be effected. It became the aim and determination of the Confederate government to hold out against the superior resources of the North until they should compel the national authorities to yield the contest.

The war had now grown to unheard-of proportions. The Southern States cast all on the die, and drained every source of men and means for the support of their armies. The national government also was greatly taxed, but the resources of the North were by no means exhausted. On the 2d of July, 1862, President Lincoln issued a call for three hundred thousand men. In the exciting times of Pope's retreat, he sent forth another call for three hundred thousand, and to this was soon added a requisition by draft for three hundred thousand more. Most of these demands were promptly met, and the discerning eye might already discover, at the beginning of 1863, that the national authority was destined to be re-established through the sheer force of numbers and resources.

On the first day of the new year President Lincoln issued the celebrated Emancipation Proclamation. The President had hitherto declared that he would save the Union with slavery if he could, but without it if he must. Meanwhile a

growing animosity against the system of human bondage had spread among the people. The sentiment of abolition began to prevail among both the people and the soldiery. It came to be regarded by the government as a military necessity to strike a blow at the labor system of the South, and the step was finally taken with little hesitancy or opposition.` The President had issued a preliminary proclamation in September of 1862, in which he warned the people of the Southern States to lay down their arms and return to their allegiance, under the menace of the destruction of their peculiar institution. The warning was met with disdain, and the Emancipation Proclamation was accordingly issued. Thus, after an existence of two hundred and forty-four years, African slavery in the United States was swept away.

The beginning of the new year found General William T. Sherman in active movement on the Mississippi. That commander sent out an expedition early in January for the capture of Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas River. The Union forces reached their destination on the 10th of the month, and after a hard-fought battle gained a decisive victory. Arkansas Post was taken with nearly five thousand prisoners. The expedition was then turned about for Vicks. burg, in order to co-operate with General Grant in a second effort to capture that stronghold and free the Mississippi River.

With this end in view the Union army was collected a Memphis, and embarked on the Mississippi. A landing was first made at Yazoo, but the capture of Vicksburg from that direction was now regarded as impracticable. For three months General Grant beat about the bayous, swamps and hills around Vicksburg, in the hope of gaining a position in the rear of the town. An attempt was made to cut a canai across the bend in the river, with a view to turning the channel, thus opening a passage for the Union gunboats;