The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year, 1861-1865, vols. 1-5. New York: Appleton & Co., 1868.

Confederate States in 1862, Part 2: Michigan through Virginia

MISSISSIPPI, one of the cotton-growing States bordering on the east side of the Mississippi river, contained in 1860 a population of 853,901 whites, 773 free colored, and 436,631 slaves. The increase during the preceding ten years was 44,729. The white males in 1860 were 186,273; do. females, 167,626. The mortality during the year ending May 31, I860, was 12,214. The most fatal diseases were consumption, fevers, and pneumonia. The value of industrial products was as follows: iron founding, $147,550; lumber, $2,055,896; flour and meal, $541,994; cotton goods, $261,135; woollen goods, $184,500; leather, $223,802. Total of all products, $6,000,000. Value of real and personal estate, $607,324,911. Lands improved, 5,150,008 acres; do. unimproved, 11,703,556. Cash value of farms and plantations, $186,866,914; do. of implements and machinery, $8,664,816. Some of the productions of the State were as follows: horses, 117,134; mules and asses, 112,488; milch cows, 207,134; working oxen, 104,184; other cattle, 415.559; sheep, 837.754; swine, 1,534,097. Value of live stock, $40,245,079; wheat, 519,452 bushels; rye, 41.260; corn, 29,563,735; oats, 121,033; rice, 657,293 lbs.; tobacco, 127,736; cotton, 1,195,699 bales of 400 lbs. each; peas and beans, 1,986,558 bushels; potatoes, Irish, 401,804; do. sweet, 4,348.491; sugar, 244hhds.; molasses, 3,445 galls. Miles of railroad in the State, 872; cost of construction of roads, $2,020,000. The principal educational institutions of the State are the University of Mississippi, Mississippi College, Madison do., and Semple Broaddus. College. The number of students in 1860 was 402. Some of these institutions are now closed.

The internal affairs of the State during the year 1862 present very few points of interest, except in connection with military affairs. The same indisposition to enter the army at the beginning of the year which existed in northern Georgia and Alabama, prevailed in Mississippi, and indeed through all the more southern States. The Legislature, at its session which commenced on January 1, 1863, passed an act authorizing the governor to draft men to fill up the quota of the State for the Confederate service. Much objection was urged against this act, inasmuch as the members of the Legislature made themselves Page 589 exempt from liability to the draft. A portion of the troops from Mississippi in the field at the close of the year were men enlisted for 60 days, who returned to their homes in January, after having suffered great mortality. Governor Pettus, immediately upon the passage of the act, issued a call for 10,000 men to serve for two years. After stating the authority upon which the call was made, he thus proceeded: Now, therefore, in virtue of the power thus vested in me, I issue this my proclamation, appealing to the patriotism of the people to evince their willingness to respond to every call their country may make upon them in the perilous crisis through which that country is called to pass. The power to draft has been conferred upon me by the Legislature, when volunteers failed to respond. I have too much confidence in the determination of the people of Mississippi to meet every responsibility and bear every burthen which may result from their severance of connection with an enemy intent upon their destruction, to believe that it will ever become necessary for me to resort to the exercise of that power. After the liberal contribution Mississippi has furnished in men and money for the prosecution of the war, the act authorizing this call would never have been passed if the necessity had not been most urgent.

I will therefore receive volunteers to the number of ten thousand, to serve for the term of two years. They are expected to bring arms with them, for which they will be allowed a fair value. To such as have no arms they will, as far as possible, be furnished. The time and places of rendezvous will be hereafter designated. Companies enlisting under this call will report to the adjutant-general at Jackson. Each company is required by the act to consist of sixty-four men rank and flic.

JOHN J. PETTUS.

Executive Office, Jackson, January SI, 1862.

The scarcity of arms was such that volunteers were required, if possible, to furnish them. This call was followed by another from President Davis upon the governor for 7 regiments. While these affairs were in progress the advance of the Federal forces up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers with the disasters to the Confederate cause which ensued, caused intense excitement. The most frantic appeals were made to the people, of which the following are examples:

The time is at band when every man able to shoulder a gun has to go. The enemy is at our doors, and reverses are every where overtaking our arms. It is now to do, and do at once, or our cause is dead, and we are hopelessly lost.

Countrymen! fellow citizens! the time of peril has come. All that is dear to us is suspended upon the issue of arms. The sword is the arbiter, and the sword is alone potent when numbers are sufficient. Bear this truth in mind, and let none feel that they are exempt. Let us imitate the example of the ancients; when the cry was " Rome demands your help "—all, from the highest to the most humble, flew to arms. Or, if need be, in spirit at least, imitate the Carthaginian women, who cut off their hair to make ropes for their vessels. To arms, countrymen! We have nothing to hope for but victory or death.

The governor issued another proclamation calling upon every citizen capable of bearing arms to have his arms in readiness, and directing the boards of police in every county to appoint enrollers preparatory to drafting; and to establish gun shops for the repair of arms. By those efforts the larger portion of the military strength of the State was brought into the field before the Confederate conscription act took effect. The battle at Shiloh now was fought, and the investment of Corinth and its evacuation followed, after which there was a cessation of active operations for some months. The important events will be found fully described under Army and Naval Operations. On Juno 17, Holly Springs was first occupied by Federal troops from the army of General Halleck. This movement of troops in the northern part of the State and the defenceless condition of the counties on the river against the approach of the Federal gunboats caused the removal of the archives of the State from Jackson, the capital, .to Columbus, near the border of Alabama. On Juno 26 the first attack on Vicksburg was made, which continued for 11 days. On September 10, Natchez surrendered to the commander of the gunboat Essex, after a bombardment of two hours. The result of these operations was the firm occupation of the northern extremity of the State by the Federal forces, while the coast at the southern extremity was completely under the control of the Federal naval forces in the neighborhood. Two points on the Mississippi river within the state, Port Hudson and Vicksburg, were strongly fortified by the Confederate Government in order to preserve its communication with Texas, and to prevent the complete control of the river from falling into possession of the Federal Government. These were measures of the utmost importance to the Confederate States.

The crops of the State suffered severely from drouth in the month of August. The crop of corn, which had given promise of great abundance, was thereby very much reduced.

The governor of the State, John J. Pettus, who was in office at the time of the secession of the State, entered upon a second term of two years, which expires on June 1,1864.

HOLLY SPRINGS, the capital of Marshall county, Mississippi, was a flourishing and beautiful village, 210 miles north of Jackson, the capital of the State, and situated on the railroad from New Orleans to Columbus, near Cairo, on the Ohio, called the Mississippi Central. It has been noted for the excellence of its schools and the intelligence of its inhabitants, and contains several churches and ono bank. It was involved in the military operations of the year, and occupied by the Federal forces at two different periods. (See Army Operations.) Its population was about 5,000.

NORTH CAROLINA, one of the original thirteen States of the Union, increased in population 23,583 during the ten years terminating in June, 1850. The further details furnished by the census of 1860 respecting North Carolina will be found under United States, to which the reader is referred.

At the approach of General Burnside's command upon the coast of North Carolina much confidence was felt on the part of the authorities that they would be able to make a successful resistance. A few days served to dispel these delusions, and change the aspect of their situation. The entire coast was exposed to the invasion of the Federal troops. This change quenched a spirit of dissatisfaction with the Confederate Government, which was beginning to prevail under grievances that the State had suffered. Efforts, however, were now made to prevent the advance of the Federal troops into the interior and to make a successful opposition to their movements as might be possible.

On the 13th of February the adjutant-general of the State, by order of the governor, issued a call for five regiments of volunteers for the war to make up the quota of the State in the Confederate army. A bounty of fifteen dollars was offered to each volunteer—to be paid by the State, and fifty dollars by the Confederate States.

When the subject of conscription was under consideration in the Confederate Congress, the people and the press of North Carolina generally took most decided grounds against it, as looking to a military despotism, as subverting the constitution and as destructive of personal liberty. It was said, "a panic prevails in the country, and those in authority have but to ask for power on the ground of military necessity, and the oldest and most sacred safeguards of freedom are yielded without a question." At the same time the Confederate Government sent an agent into the State to borrow, purchase, or, if necessary, impress all the arms in the hands of the citizens. This whole action was looked upon as, on the one hand, calling into the field, as hireling soldiers, all the fighting men between eighteen and thirty-five, ang, on the other hand, disarming the remainder of the population. The governor, on the 15th of April, issued a proclamation to the citizens, stating that they would be protected in preserving from seizure their private arms as a means of self-defence, but requesting them to give information of all public arms.

By the action of the Legislature in encouraging private enterprise, an establishment was put in operation at Raleigh at the beginning of the year, which manufactured about two thousand pounds of powder daily. It bore a satisfactory trial in comparison with the Dupont powder.

The State convention, called into existence in 1861, for the purpose of passing the ordinance of secession, assembled at an adjourned session on the 21st of April. It was thought that such circumstances had occurred as to dispose many of its members to repeal that ordinance if it had been practicable.

The election for State officers in North Carolina takes place on the second Thursday in August. Some months before this election the person who should be the next governor of the State became a subject of active discussion. One party desired a man who was not a Page 66 prescriptive secessionist, and the other desired one who was radical and thorough on secession, and who would sustain the Confederate Government, even at the expense of State rights. Both parties sustained the war. The candidates nominated for the office were William Johnson, of Mecklenberg county, and Zebulon B. Vance, of Buncombe county. The grounds of opposition to Mr. Johnson were thus set forth:

Who is William Johnson of Mecklenberg, the democratic nominee for the high and responsible position of governor, is a question which is daily asked. Mr. Johnson is nominally a resident of Charlotte, Mecklenberg county, where he owns a considerable property. He is president of the Charlotte and South Carolina railroad, which runs from Charlotte to Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, where the business office of the road is located, and where Mr. Johnson resides, in which city he has made large investments and becomes thoroughly identified with the interests of South Carolina, and more especially is he identified with her political heresy of secession, in which be is most completely indoctrinated, and is what might be called a forward student in this new school of political science. He is a lawyer by profession, but has never risen above the sphere of a county practitioner in reputation. He has been a member of the Legislature, is a member of the sovereign convention of this State, and was among the first to vote in favor of secession.

Colonel Vance, on the other hand, was opposed as "failing to enjoy the confidence of the friends of the Confederacy," and was thus spoken of:

Unfortunately, there appears to exist a belief (doubtless obtained from the course of the " Standard") among the troops that the election of Vance will bring peace, which will give him ( Vance) all the votes of those who have been pressed into the ranks, which, including the votes from the opposition regiments, made up wholly as they are from the opposite party, may elect Vance.

The friends of Mr. Vance thus described their position: " We belong to the people's war party. Vance is the leader of it. It is for the war, and, at the same time, for liberty, conservatism, and reform at home."

The following is an appeal made by the friends of Mr. Johnson to the electors, urging them to vote against Colonel Vance:

A governor and Legislature of North Carolina are to be elected Thursday, August 7. It will be the most important election held in the State. The duration of the war, and the faith of the South, hang upon the results. Whether Colonel Vance or Mr. Johnson, as individuals, shall be elected, is a matter of small importance; but it is of great importance for the South to triumph in this war, and for North Carolina to continue true to the cause to the end of it, without manifesting the smallest signs of backing out and deserting the sisterhood of the Confederate States, after all their united sacrifices, when success is almost ready to crush the common foe, rendering independence and a nationality won by stout arms and brave hearts certain. Mr. Johnson, emphatically, is the Confederate or Southern candidate—the issue having been placed upon that ground by the press in the interest of Colonel Vance, and likewise by political meetings held in his behalf and stump orators that have spouted around during the canvass. That is the issue which has been placed before the people of the State by the advocates of Colonel Vance. And the question which the people will have to decide in this election, as thus presented, is, shall the State recede from the position which she assumed to her Southern sisterhood when she withdrew from the United States, and again join the Yankee nation? The election of Colonel Vance would indicate the popular will of the people of North Carolina to reenter the old Union, and we desire that they will vote upon the question understandingly. Then, of what avail will be the sacrifices which the people have made in prosecuting the war, of life and treasure? What will be thought of the State by the world? Can the people pay the State's share of the immense Yankee debt, amounting to more than all the property in the State would sell for? How could they wipe out the disgrace which such an event would entail upon the Slate? Have the people pondered the demoralizing effect which it would have upon our army. Consider well these things and vote accordingly.

The result of the election was the choice of Colonel Vance as governor by a large majority. In forty-three of eighty-nine counties his majority exceeded 19,000. A majority of the members elected to the Legislature were of the same party with the governor. On the 17th of November the Legislature assembled at Raleigh, and the governor delivered his Message. He urged a vigorous prosecution of the war, but complained of the bad faith of the Confederate Government in sending agents into the State to obtain clothing and supplies, after agreeing not to do so, if the State undertook to clothe her own troops. He condemned the conscription law; stated that the soldiers were suffering greatly for want of shoes and clothing. (See Army, Confederate). The debt of the State at the beginning of the year was $2,098,361. Flour and corn commanded such prices as to be used only by wealthy persons.

The Legislature adopted the following resolutions on the 27th of November:

Resolved, That the Confederate States have the means and the will to sustain and perpetuate the Government they have established, and that to that end North Carolina is determined to contribute all her power and resources.

Resolved, That the separation between the Confederate States and the United States is final, and that the people of North Carolina will never consent to a reunion at any time or upon any terms.

Resolved, That we have full confidence in the ability and patriotism of his Excellency President Davis, and that his administration is entitled to the cordial support of all patriotic citizens.

Resolved, That we heartily approve of the policy for the conduct of the war set forth by his Excellency Governor Vance to the General Assembly, and that he ought to be unanimously supported in the manly and patriotic stand he has taken for our independence.

The number of men obtained in the State by the conscription law was stated to exceed forty thousand, three fourths of whom were reported by the examining physicians as unfit for military duty. The destitution of the people in the interior of the State was very great, especially of salt, shoes, clothing, and corn. The exportation of the former from the State was forbidden by the governor. The removal of the conscripts did not leave men enough in some parts to gather a crop. In the seven days' battles before Richmond, North Carolina had in the field forty-two regiments of infantry; one of cavalry, and one company of artillery; the Page 662 number of wounded among them was 3,463, •who were taken to the hospitals, without including several hundred who went home. For military affairs in North Carolina, (see Army Operations.)

On the 15th of May, Edward Stanley, formerly a distinguished citizen of North Carolina, arrived at New York from California, for the purpose of entering upon the office of temporary governor of North Carolina, which had been tendered to him by President Lincoln. The part of Carolina placed under his jurisdiction was that in which the Federal arms held control. The instructions of the Federal Government to Governor Stanley were similar to those given to Governor Andrew Johnson in Tennessee, and were as follows:

War Department, Washington, D. C., May 2,1862.

Hon. Edward Stanley, Military Governor of North Carolina:

Sir: The commission you have received expresses on its face the nature and extent of the duties and power devolved on you by the appointment of military governor of North Carolina. Instructions have been given to Major-General Burnside to aid you in the performance of your duties and the exercise of your authority. He has been instructed to detail an adequate military force for the special purpose of a governor's guard, and to act under your direction. It is obvious to you that the great purpose of your appointment is to reestablish the authority of the Federal Government in the State of North Carolina, and to provide the means of maintaining peace and security to the loyal inhabitants of that State until they shall be able to establish a civil government. Upon your wisdom and energetic action much will depend in accomplishing that result. It is not deemed necessary to give any specific instructions, but rather to confide in your sound discretion to adopt such measures as circumstances may demand. You may rely upon the perfect confidence and full support of this department in the performance of your duties.

With great respect, I am your obedient servant,

EDWIN M. STAN'TON, Secretary of War.

On the 26th of May he arrived at Newbern, and entered upon his duties. On the 17th of June he made an address to the people at Washington, N. C. Permission had been given to the citizens to enter the Federal lines for the purpose of hearing this address, and they were present from seventeen counties. The speech was a review of the past, an examination of present affairs, and an urgent appeal to the citizens to resume their allegiance to the Federal Government. The result showed that so long as the Confederate Government retained, its organization and power, the citizens could not be expected to turn against it; especially as the fortune of war might soon place them under its control again.

At all the military posts of the Federal Government in the State, the slaves from the interior who had run away collected. This was especially the case at Newbern, where five thousand had come in. When Governor Stanley arrived there he found schools established for their instruction, but expressed the opinion that it was injudicious, as contrary to the laws of the State, and if upheld by him it must destroy his influence with the people. The schools were temporarily suspended. The course pursued by the governor was designed to restore the confidence and good will of the people, which had been lost by the belief that it was the purpose of the Federal Administration to destroy their institutions and subjugate the people. A conference was proposed by Governor Stanley to Governor Vance, for the purpose of restoring peace in the State. The latter refused to meet, but referred the former to the Confederate Government at Richmond. Apparently little has been gained for the Federal cause thus far by the military organization on the borders of the State.

BEAUFORT, N.C. the capital of Carteret county, North Carolina, is situated at the mouth of the Newport river, a few miles from the sea. It is eleven miles from Cape Lookout and ono hundred and forty-three miles by railroad from Raleigh, the capital of the State. The harbor is the best in the State, and the commerce was considerable in turpentine, resin, and other products of the pine. The population in 1853 was about 2,000.. The entrance to the harbor was guarded by Fort Macon, which was seized by order of the governor after the surrender of Fort Sumter, and surrendered to the United States forces under General Burnside. (See Army Operations.)

SOUTH CAROLINA, the first of the Southern States to pass an ordinance of secession from the Union, increased in population 35,201 in the ten years ending June, 1860, when her entire population was 703,708. (See United States.)

On the last week in December, 1861, the State Convention assembled at Columbia. Its term of existence would have expired some time previous, but by its own act it extended the term. This was done in consequence of the invasion of the State at Port Royal, and the exigencies which arose. Apprehensions were entertained of the ability and competency of the State Government to cope successfully with the unusual affairs, and for this reason the final adjournment was postponed. Its sessions were conducted with closed doors, and none of its acts were made public. An advisory council was instituted, to whom, in conjunction with the governor, extraordinary powers were granted.

The sessions of the Legislature are convened on the second Monday in October. At the last session in 1861 an act was passed authorizing a draft to be made in the districts near the sea coast to make up a strong military force for twelve months to be engaged in the coast defence. Two thirds of all the men capable of bearing arms were to be placed in the field. At the beginning of 1862 these forces were obtained and brought into the field without a draft. At the same time, all persons who had removed their slaves from the seaboard to the interior were required to place them under the control of white masters. The command of the sea coast defences was vested in General R. E. Lee, who was assisted by Brigadier-Generals Ripley, Lawton, Drayton, and Trapier of the Confederate army, Generals Capers, Harrison, and Walker of Georgia, and Gonzales, De Saussure, and others of South Carolina. The department embraced South Carolina, Georgia, and Eastern Florida. The force in command was regarded as sufficient to repel any invasion of the Federal troops into the interior. The citizens of Charleston had joined the army to such an extent that business was nearly suspended. Seven distinct regiments had at this time taken the field from the city, besides numerous companies and individuals who had entered the army. The cotton on the coast that was exposed to seizure by Federal troops was either entirely removed or destroyed.

In some instances the troops raised for the defence of the State refused to go beyond her borders. This was particularly the case with the 18th regiment of volunteers, which being ordered to the West, after reaching the Georgia railroad, flatly refused to obey the orders of their officers. They alleged that they were enlisted to servo the State, and were willing to fight in her defence, but that they would not go out of the State. Some declared that they would have gone if they had been consulted before starting, but that their officers had not notified them that they were to leave the State; others had furloughs, and desired to see their families. The officers urged in vain the stigma that would rest upon them for refusing to go where their country most needed their services, and the reproach they would bring upon the State of South Carolina, which had been foremost in the work of resistance. Their appeals were unavailing, and the malcontents returned. On the first of May South Carolina had in the field 89,274 men, of whom 22,000 were in the Confederate service. The excess above her quota was 4,064. The State quota at this time was about ono fourth of her free white male population.

A very large amount of land in the State was planted in corn, and it was supposed that an enormous crop capable of supplying that species of food in superabundance and at a low price would be the result. But the season was marred by a drought, and in many parts of the State the corn crop was seriously injured, so that there was scarcely more than was produced in the previous year, when much less land was planted. The production of rice also was curtailed to a considerable extent by the removal of the planters from the tide water region. Still the season for rice was good, and those who planted generally made good crops. Apprehensions were entertained that sufficient efforts would not be made to secure the crop.

In October the Legislature convened in Columbia, and the message of Governor F. Pickens was delivered. He urged the support Page 760 of the Confederate authorities in measure's of the common defence. He withheld all objections to the conscript law, though he regarded all such acts as against the spirit of the Constitution; and recommended that a State guard of citizens under eighteen and over forty-five years of age be formed to counteract the effects of President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation. The State had at that date furnished forty-two thousand troops to the Confederate army, besides eight regiments for coast defence.

At this time General Beauregard was ordered to the command of the Confederate forces at Charleston, and immense fortifications were commenced for the defence of that city against the anticipated attack of the Federal forces.

The attempt to blockade the harbor by the sinking of hulks proved a failure. Numerous passages in the water-front of six miles which the harbor had were left unobstructed, and more vessels ran the blockade and reached the city than at any other Southern port. The force of the west winds, the heave of the sea, and the action, of the quicksands soon began to dissipate the obstructions.

TENNESSEE, the first Confederate State occupied by the Federal armies, and one of the most populous of the Southern States, increased in population 107,084 during the ten years ending in June, 1860. The full details given by the census returns thus far made up, relative to the State, will be found under United States, to which the reader is referred.

Nothing of special importance occurred in the State at the commencement of the year 1862, while under Confederate control, previous to the advance of the Federal army under General Grant—for which see Army Operations, and also Nashville.

The great Federal victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, and the consequent evacuation of Bowling Green, rendered Nashville no longer tenable.

The Legislature and executive officers of Tennessee had made preparations for such a contingency, and lost no time in removing to Memphis, where, on the 20th of February, Governor Harris addressed a message to the senate and house of representatives, in which he said:

I deemed it my duty to remove the records of the Government to and convene the Legislature at this city, for the following reasons: The disaster to our arms at Fishing Creek [Mill Spring or Webb's Crossroads"] had turned the right flank of our army, and left the country from Cumberland Gap to Nashville exposed to the advance of the Union army. The fall of Fort Henry had given the enemy the free navigation of the Tennessee river, through which channel he had reached the southern boundary of Tennessee, and the fall of Fort Donelson left the Cumberland river open to his gunboats and transports, enabling him to penetrate the heart of the State, and reach its capital at any time within a few hours, when he should see proper to move upon it.

The message, after enumerating the measures previously taken by the executive in support of the Confederate cause, and reminding the Legislature that at the time of the capture of Fort Donelson there was not a single organized and armed company in the State subject to the governor's command, recommended the amendment of the militia system, the organization of a part of the militia as cavalry and artillery, and the passing of a bill to authorize the raising, arming, and equipping of a provisional army of volunteers, and to appropriate ample means for this purpose. Governor Harris immediately took the field in person, having on the previous day issued a proclamation calling upon the people to arm themselves, and a general order to the militia, appointing places of rendezvous, and designating their commanders. On the 22d, General U. S. Grant issued the following order from Fort Donelson:

Tennessee, by her rebellion, having ignored all laws of the United states, no courts will be allowed to act under State authority, but all cases coming within the reach of the military arm, will be adjudicated by the authorities the Government has established within the State.

Martial law is therefore declared to extend over West Tennessee. Whenever a sufficient number of citizens return to their allegiance to maintain law and order over the territory, the military restriction here indicated will be removed.

On the next day (the 23d), the Confederate troops evacuated Nashville; and on the 25th the city was occupied by the advance of the Federal army under General Nelson. A large portion of the State having now been reconquered to the Union, President Lincoln nominated Andrew Johnson Military Governor of Tennessee, with the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers, and the nomination was confirmed by the Senate on the 5th of March. Governor Johnson, a native of North Carolina, had been 5 times a representative in Congress, and twice Governor of Tennessee, and at the time of his appointment was U. S. Senator from that State. He reached Nashville March 12th, in company with Emerson Etheridge, Clerk of the House of Representatives, and Horace Maynard, Member of Congress from Tennessee, and the next evening, in response to a serenade, he made an address, which he afterward published as an "Appeal to the People of Tennessee." After briefly recounting the Page 764 history of the secession movement, and the measures adopted by the Federal Government, he proceeded as follows:

The President has conducted this mighty contest, until, as commander in-chief of the army, he has caused the national flag again to float undisputed over the Capitol of our State. Meanwhile, the State Government has disappeared. The executive has abdicated; the Legislature was dissolved: the judiciary is in abeyance. The great ship of state, freighted with its precious cargo of human interests and human hopes, its sails all set, and its glorious old flag unfurled, has been suddenly abandoned by its officers and mutinous crew, and left to float at the mercy of the winds, and to be plundered by every rover upon the deep. Indeed, the work of plunder has already commenced. The archives have been desecrated, the public property stolen and destroyed; the vaults of the State Bank violated, and its treasures robbed, including the funds carefully gathered and consecrated for all time to the instruction of our children.

In such a lamentable crisis, the Government of the United States could not be unmindful of its high constitutional obligation to guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, an obligation which every State has a direct and immediate interest in having observed toward every other State; and from which, by no action on the part of the people in any State, can the Federal Government be absolved. A republican form of government, in consonance with the Constitution of the United States, is one of the fundamental conditions of our political existence, by which every part of the country is alike bound, and from which no part can escape. This obligation the national Government is now attempting to discharge. I have been appointed, in the absence of the regular and established State authorities, as Military Governor for the time being, to preserve the public property of the State, to give the protection of law actively enforced to her citizens, and, as speedily as may be, to restore her Government to the same condition as before the existing rebellion.

In this grateful but arduous undertaking, I shall avail myself of all the aid that may be afforded by my fellow citizens. And for this purpose I respectfully but earnestly invite all the people of Tennessee, desirous or willing to see a restoration of her ancient Government, without distinction of party affiliations or past political opinions or action, to unite with me, by counsel and cooperative agency, to accomplish this great end. I find most, if not all of the offices, both State and Federal, vacated either by actual abandonment, or by the action of the incumbents in attempting to subordinate their functions to a power in hostility to the fundamental law of the State, and subversive of her national allegiance. These offices must be filled temporarily, until the State shall be restored so far to its accustomed quiet, that the people can peaceably assemble at the ballot box and select agents of their own choice. Otherwise anarchy would prevail, and no man's life or property would be safe from the desperate and unprincipled.

I shall, therefore, as early as practicable, designate for various positions under the State and county Governments, from among my fellow citizens, persons of probity and intelligence, and bearing true allegiance to the Constitution and Government of the United States, who will execute the functions of their respective offices, until their places can be filled by the action of the people. Their authority, when their appointments shall have been made, will be accordingly respected and observed.

To the people themselves, the protection of the Government is extended. All their rights will be duly respected, and their wrongs redressed when made known. Those who through the dark and weary night of the rebellion have maintained their allegiance to the Federal Government will be honored. The erring and misguided will be welcomed on their return. And while it may become necessary, in vindicating the violated majesty of the law. and in reasserting its imperial sway, to punish intelligent and conscious treason in high places, no merely retaliatory or vindictive policy will he adopted. To those, especially, who in a private, unofficial capacity have assumed an attitude of hostility to the Government, a full and complete amnesty for all past acts and declarations is offered, upon the one condition of their again yielding themselves peaceful citizens to the just supremacy of the laws. This I advise them to do for their own good, and for the peace and welfare of our beloved State, endeared to me by the associations of long and active years, and by the enjoyment of her highest honors.

The address was listened to with respect and some favor; but the Union feeling developed in Nashville, and other parts of Middle Tennessee, after their occupation by the Federal forces, was far from answering the expectations of the North, or even of the Tennessee Unionists themselves. On the 9th of March, the citizens of Shelbyville, in Bedford county, burned a quantity of Confederate stores, to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Confederates; and soon afterward the people of Gallatin, a place in which the Southern party had before been strongly in the ascendant, held a town meeting, and expressed a readiness to return to their allegiance; but these were exceptional instances, and the Federal occupation did not become popular until there seemed reason to think it would be permanent.

On the 25th, the governor required the Common Council and other city officials of Nashville, to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, and on their refusal to do so, he issued a proclamation declaring vacant the offices of most of them, and appointing persons to act in their places until a new election could be held by the people. The mayor of Nashville, and some other citizens, were arrested on the 29th, on the charge of " disloyal practices." The newspaper press was placed under military supervision; several papers suspended publication, and on April 10th, the " Daily Nashville Union" was commenced by S. 0. Mercer, a refugee from Kentucky. Affairs soon began to wear a more flattering aspect. "For several days," says the "Union" of April 11th, "the office of Governor Johnson in the Capitol has been thronged with secession men and women from the city, and adjacent country, earnestly interceding for their sons who have been, or are now, in the rebel army, and expressing the utmost willingness and even anxiety, to take the oath of allegiance to the good old Government, and faithfully discharge the duties of law-abiding, and loyal citizens." On the 12th, the editor of the " Nashville Banner" was arrested, and placed in confinement, on the charge of uttering treasonable and seditious language; and on the 15th, J. C. Guild, of Gallatin, judge of the Chancery Court, was arrested on charge of treason, by an officer of Governor Johnson's staff, and conveyed to Nashville.

On the 20th the following letter was addressed to the governor by seven Confederate officers confined at Camp Chase, near Columbus, on behalf of themselves and "a great Page 765 many others whose names were not subscribed:"

To Andrew Johnson, Governor, &c., of the State of Tennessee:

We the undersigned citizens of Columbia, Tenn., having gone into service, under the last call of Governor Harris, the circumstances of which call, and our enlistment, you have by this time become fully aware of, are very desirous of returning to loyalty by taking the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government, and will ever feel grateful to you for our deliverance from our present confinement.

Several other letters of like import, from Tennesseeans who had served in the Southern army, were published about the same time.

Trade, for some time after the occupation of Nashville, gave no sign of reviving. Northern merchants had followed the national armies into Tennessee, in the expectation of buying cotton, and obtaining markets for their own commodities; but there was little or no cotton at Nashville and other river ports, and the planters of the interior showed no disposition to send it forward. Northern products of nearly all sorts we're in great demand, and quoted at high prices; but the people had no money except the currency of the Southern Confederacy, which the Northern speculators, of course, refused to take. In a few weeks' time, however, U. S. money became comparatively plentiful throughout Middle Tennessee; confidence in the depreciated bills of Tennessee banks was restored; and cotton gradually found its way to the ports of outlet.

Buyers began to scour the country in all directions, within, and sometimes even beyond the Federal lines. The reluctance of the cotton planters to sell was soon entirely overcome. Good middling brought in April, 16 and 17 cents in specie, or U. S. Treasury notes, and 22 and 25 cents in current Tennessee paper. The following extract from the " Nashville Union " of May 10, shows the state of the Tennessee cotton traffic at that date:

Upon enquiry we have ascertained that down to the 1st of this month permits were granted for the shipment from Nashville of 2,918 bales of cotton. The requirement of permits for the shipment of goods from this to the loyal States having been abrogated, it is not easy to ascertain the precise number or bales of cotton that have been shipped since the 30th ult. Upon enquiry we have ascertained that since that date there have been shipped 634 bales. To this amount may be added from 50 to 100 bales shipped by outsiders, who are unknown to us. The whole amount shipped since the 11th of March, when trade was opened, may be set down as not less, and probably something oyer, 8,600 bales. The price it now commands readily is 20 cents in gold or U. S. Treasury notes—at times lots are sold at 21 cents, and at others at 19 cents. The entire amount which it may be expected will be shipped from this place during the season is estimated to be about 18,000 bales. From two to three thousand bales hare been burned by the Confederate troops—chiefly in Giles county. The cotton already sold at this point has brought into the country $360,000 of good currency, either in specie or U. S. Treasury notes. If no obstacle shall be placed in the way of trade by the further operations of rebel marauding parties composed of worthless and irresponsible vagabonds, the cotton already shipped and to be shipped at this point will bring $1,800,000. That burned by the rebels is estimated at $500,000, the average value of the bales being $100 each.

Rice was also shipped to some extent, and the quantity of both these staples sent into the loyal States would have been much greater hut for guerilla bands, who made it their object to prevent the crops from being sold. A proclamation was issued by the governor, threatening to imprison five or more secessionists of the neighborhood where such things occurred.

On May 12, in pursuance of a call signed by a number of prominent citizens, requesting "their fellow citizens of the State of Tennessee, who are in favor of the restoration of the former relations of this State to the Federal Union, to be' present at a public meeting to be held at the capitol, in the city of Nashville," a large gathering of persons from different parts of the State took place in the Hall of Representatives. Ex-Governor Wm. B. Campbell (now brigadier-general) was chosen president of the convention, and on taking the chair made a few remarks, in the course of which he said:

We invite all to help us in restoring the supremacy of law over Tennessee, and reinstating her in all the privileges and immunities of the Union. We wish to welcome back all our deluded fellow citizens cordially. The Government intends no sweeping confiscation, nor wild turning loose of slaves, against the revolted States. It designs no infringement on the rights of property. All will be protected who will be loyal to the Government. We bear no malice toward any one, but deep sympathy for the deluded. He had dear friends and dear relations who had gone astray, and his heart yearned for their return. The Federal Government will pursue a kind, liberal, and benevolent policy toward the people of the South, to bring them to the Union.

Addresses were made by W. H. Wiseman, Hon. W. B. Stokes, Edmund Cooper, Colonel W. H. Polk, Governor Johnson, Colonel L. D. Campbell, General Dumont, and others.

At the request of many persons present at this convention, the chairman appointed Allen A. Hall, John Lellyett, Russell Houston, Horace H. Harrison, and M. M. Brien, a " State Central Union Committee," for the purpose of communicating with the friends of Union in various parts of the State.

The United States circuit court opened at Nashville on the 13th, and in his charge to the Grand Jury, Judge Catron instructed them to ferret out and indict all persons guilty of aiding and abetting the marauding parties who infested the State.

On the 14th ex-Governor Neil S. Brown, one of the leaders of the secession party in Tennessee, was arrested, by order of Governor Johnson, on charge of treason, but was afterward released on parole. He took the oath of allegiance, and became a prominent advocate of the Union.

The following notice was issued at Nashville on May 18:

After this date no shipment of merchandise from this city or State will be allowed, except upon permits therefor issued by the proper constituted officers of the Government of the United States.

Page 766 On the 21st, D. F. Carter, president, and John Herriford, cashier of the Bank of the Union at Nashville, were arrested on charge of treason, and placed in confinement.

An election for judge of the circuit court of Nashville, held on the 22d, resulted in the choice of Turner S. Foster, secessionist, by a majority of about 190. The Union vote was about 1,000; the vote against separation in Nashville in June, 1861, was only 300.

Judge Foster received his commission from the provisional governor on the 26th of July, and the same day was arrested and sent to the penitentiary.

On the 24th of May a Union meeting was held at Murfreesboro', at which speeches were made by Governor Johnson and others, and the resolutions of the Nashville Union Convention of the 12th were unanimously adopted. Thirty-four soldiers of a Tennessee regiment in the Southern array came before the provost marshal on that occasion, and took the oath of allegiance.

On the same day, under the provisions of the general confiscation act of August 6, 1861, the United States Marshal for the Middle District of Tennessee seized at Nashville the offices of the "Republican Banner," "Union and American," and "Gazette" newspapers, and the Southern Methodist Publishing House, and on the 26th the Baptist Publishing House, and "Patriot" newspaper office, all having been active supporters of the secession movement, he also seized two gun factories in South Nashville, belonging to stock companies.

The address of the committee appointed by the Nashville Union Convention to draw up a paper setting forth the purposes of that meeting was published, June 4th. After reviewing the prosperity of Tennessee before the civil war broke out, it thus depicts the condition to which the State had been reduced by secession:

We are without representation in the national Legislature, and laws touching our most vital interests are enacted without our participation or consent. War in its most terrible form is at our doors—civil war, the scourge of nations and of the human race; hero it is with all its horrors. And look at its effects upon the interests of our people. Our schools, academies, colleges, and universities as places of education and instruction are closed, and are only used as barracks for troops or as hospitals for sick and wounded soldiers. Our common school fund, for the education of the poor and helpless, has been abstracted and carried off by unauthorized and irresponsible persons beyond the control of the legitimate authorities of the State or even their own control. The funds of our State bank, our only financial agent and place of safe-keeping of the money of the State, have been seized and carried within the control of men at war against the Government. Our State debt is increased by millions without a dollar consideration. Our credit is dishonored and our currency ruined. Our commerce is cut off and our manufactures shut up. Our fences are destroyed, bridges burned, private property taken, and crops consumed under the plea of military necessity. Our fields arc uncultivated and the hand of industry is still. Our cities, towns and country, are crowded with troops, and our public highways and street corners blockaded with military guards. Our Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller, and Treasurer, with the public records of the State, are missing. Our courts are suspended, and we are without a regular government. Our sons and brothers, and our relations and friends are on the eve of battles, probably the most destructive to be recorded in history. And at a time when most needed, our churches are closed, our ministers of religion absent from their duties or in the army, and instead of "Peace on earth; good will to men," it is war to extermination.

The address discusses the abstract right of secession, defends the conduct of the Federal Government, shows the advantages of adhering to the North and the certain misery to follow a union with the Southern Confederacy.

Governor Johnson, about the same time, issued an order providing that all persons who should be arrested for using treasonable and seditious language, and who should refuse thereafter to take the oath of allegiance and give bonds in the sum of $1,000 for future good behavior, should be sent South beyond the Federal lines, with the distinct understanding that if they returned they were to be treated as spies.

Memphis was captured by the river fleet on the 6th, and West Tennessee was thus brought under the control of the Federal Government. (See Memphis.)

On the 7th a Union meeting was held at Shelbyville, Governor Johnson, Colonel May of Kentucky, and James L. Scudder, formerly a prominent secessionist and assistant inspector general of State troops under Governor Harris, being among the orators.

On June 17th Governor Johnson summoned sis prominent secession clergymen of Nashville to meet him at the capitol, and requested them to take the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government. At their urgent desire, a few days were granted them for deliberation. On the 28th, as they refused to take the oath, five were sent to the .penitentiary, to be kept in close confinement until arrangements could be made for escorting them beyond the lines: the sixth, being in feeble health, was paroled. On the same day Dr. J. P. Ford, and on the next day the Rev. C. D. Elliott, principal of a girls' boarding-school, and Dr. Cheatham, superintendent of the State Lunatic Asylum, were arrested at Nashville and similarly disposed of. At a Union meeting held in Pulaski, June 17, Mr. George Baber, formerly identified with the Southern party as editor of the Nashville "Banner," delivered an address in which he disavowed his past course. Another meeting of the people of Giles county was held at the same place on the 21st, when resolutions were passed whereby the citizens pledged themselves to use their influence for the speedy restoration of the State to her federal relations. Giles county is one of the most flourishing in Middle Tennessee. It is largely engaged in cotton growing, and works over 5,000 negroes. On the 23d five of the most prominent secessionists of Pulaski, including the Rev. Mr. Mooney, a Methodist clergyman, were arrested Page 767 and sent beyond the Federal lines under an escort of cavalry.

A Union meeting was held at Valley Springs Meeting House, Dickson county, on the 21st.

The anniversary of American independence was celebrated with great enthusiasm, and Union speeches were delivered at the capital and in other parts of the State.

Arrests continued frequent, and in the early part of July twenty-eight persons were arrested at Goodlettsville, but were all released on taking the oath of allegiance.

In the mean time, the Union citizens of the State had been almost incessantly harassed by roving bands of guerillas and marauders, of whom the cavalry forces of Cols. Forrest and Morgan acquired the greatest notoriety. Scarcely a day passed which did not bring a report of their seizing horses, cattle, and stores, burning bridges, tearing up railroad tracks, destroying telegraphic communications, and not unfrequently killing prominent Union men or falling unexpectedly upon small detachments of Federal troops. On the 1st of May a party of Colonel Morgan's horsemen entered Pulaski and destroyed the goods of a shop keeper of that place. A military commission examined the case on the 20th, and ordered the provost marshal to collect from the secession authorities of the town, or failing in that, from certain well-known Confederate citizens, a sum sufficient to cover all the damages. As soon as Memphis had fallen the Confederate cavalry began to infest the line of the Memphis and Charleston railroad, burning cotton, carrying off Union citizens, and threatening to seize the person and destroy the property of any one who attempted to enter Memphis upon whatever pretext. On the 7th of July the pickets of a Minnesota brigade were attacked near Murfreesboro' by a party of civilians, and two of the soldiers were killed. The next day 90 guerillas were captured between Gallatin and Hartsville. On the 9th a wagon master and a sutler were fired upon from an ambush near Franklin, the latter being killed and the former severely wounded. Similar murders were perpetrated near Memphis. On the 13th Colonels Forrest and Warner, with a regiment of Texan Bangers and a strong force of other Confederate troops, captured Murfreesboro'; and on the 21st a party of Forrest's guerillas captured the Federal pickets on the Lebanon road.

The greatest excitement now existed at Nashville, and the loyal citizens proceeded to enroll themselves in anticipation of an attack upon the city, but in a few days reinforcements arrived and the guerillas fell back toward McMinnville. On the 17th an attack was made by about GO guerillas upon a small scouting party belonging to General Negley's command, between Mount Pleasant and Columbia. The Federal soldiers, only 8 in number, took refuge in a house and defended themselves for 6 hours, the guerillas finally retiring. On the 19th a party of 11 guerillas entered Brownsville and destroyed a large quantity of cotton. On the 2d of August General Nelson occupied McMinnville, the Confederates fulling back before his arrival. General Negley about the same time led an expedition against the guerillas in the direction of Columbia, dispersing a large assemblage of the marauders at Williamsport, and engaging them again with success at Kinderhook. On the 12th a detachment of Colonel Morgan's guerillas surprised Gallatin, on the Louisville and Nashville railroad, making 130 prisoners and capturing a quantity of government stores, with a train of grain and 65 horses on the way from Louisville to Nashville. A force was immediately sent from Nashville to intercept them, but arrived only in time to capture a wagon load of arms, and exchange shots with stragglers on the outskirts of the town. On the 16th a party of workmen sent to repair the railroad which had been injured by Morgan near Gallatin were captured by guerillas, and the same day two Federal couriers were made prisoners a few miles south of Nashville. Railroad communication with the latter place was now entirely cut off on every side, bridges being burned and the track torn up for considerable distances, but the interruption lasted only a short time. On the 18th a railroad train was fired into near Columbia, a woman and child and two Federal soldiers being killed. The day afterward Clarksville was captured by a guerilla force, assisted by the disunion inhabitants of the town, Colonel Mason of the 71st Ohio and about 300 men surrendering without resistance.

On the 20th a guard of 20 men under Captain Atkinson of the 50th Indiana volunteers, being attacked at Edgefield junction by an overwhelming force of guerillas under Colonel Morgan, defended themselves for 3 hours behind a stockade, repulsing their assailants three times, and saving the train to Bowling Green which it seems to have been Morgan's intention to capture.

A second engagement with Morgan at Gallatin on the 22d proved a much more disastrous affair than the raid on the 12th. General B. AT. Johnson was taken prisoner, and more than half his command of 800 men were killed or captured. The guerillas emboldened by success now became more than ever troublesome. Travel ceased to be safe even within a few miles of the capital; the mails were robbed; Union citizens were seized and sent to the South, and small detachments of Federal troops were frequently surprised by these daring horsemen, whose rapid movements generally set pursuit at defiance. At McMinnville they attacked the stockade, but the little guard repulsed them with heavy loss; and on the 28th Colonel Forrest's band had a severe engagement with a Federal Kentucky regiment near Woodbury, losing 8 killed, 30 wounded, and 15 prisoners. On the 10th of September some Federal officers were captured by guerillas while dining at a house two or three miles Page 768 from Nashville. At Covington, Tipton county, in the western part of the State, where such raids had been common, the citizens gave bonds in the sum of $50,000 to protect Union residents, and declared their purpose of hanging all guerillas who fell into their hands. The interior of the State was not only harassed by organized bands, such as those of Forrest and Morgan, who held regular commissions in the Confederate army, but were also ravaged by marauders of the worst description, who had no object but plunder, and robbed both parties alike. The guerillas also gathered in considerable force in the counties bordering on the Mississippi, and attacked transports and other vessels on the river, generally with musketry alone, but sometimes with light field artillery. On the 23d of September a party of twenty-five or thirty men at Randolph, armed with rifles, muskets, and shot-guns, signaled the steamer Eugene to land. As the boat had two passengers and some freight for that point, she rounded to, none of the officers perceiving the guerilla band, who in fact had kept in the background up to that time. It was now apparent, as the guerillas sprang from their hiding place, that the intention was to seize the boat; and the captain, regardless of the demand to surrender, boldly pushed back into the stream amid several volleys of musketry. There were a great many passengers on board, including women and children, but no one was killed or hurt.

The outrage having been reported the next day to General Sherman, at Memphis, he sent the forty-sixth regiment of Ohio volunteers and a section of Willard's Chicago battery to destroy the town. These troops took passage on the steamers Ohio Belle and Eugene, which arrived at Randolph on the 25th. The inhabitants seemed to have been impressed with the conviction that the town would be destroyed, and consequently most of them had left the place. The quartermaster of the regiment went through the town and took an inventory of the buildings and their probable worth, with their owners' names, as far as they could be learned. This having been done, and everything in each house having been removed, every house in the town was burnt to the ground, except the Methodist church, which was left standing for the accommodation of the few persons turned out of doors by the fire. All the cotton and other property of value as merchandise was brought away.

The town of Randolph, thus destroyed, contained about ninety houses, said to be mostly in a dilapidated condition. It is situated about sixty miles above Memphis, and was the site of extensive Confederate fortifications before the Mississippi river was opened.

To prevent similar occurrences in future, General "W. T. Sherman, commanding at Memphis, ordered that for every boat fired upon ten disloyal families should be expelled the city.

On October 21st the President recommended an election for members of Congress to be held in several districts of Tennessee, and instructed the military commanders to take measures to facilitate the execution of the order.

The progress of the campaign had now brought the Confederate forces almost within sight of Nashville, and the guerillas, hovering over the route of the regular forces, carried off stragglers from the Federal columns and rendered important service to their cause by burning bridges, skirmishing with pickets, and threatening the Union supply trains. On the 19th of October, Colonel Forrest was defeated on the Gallatin turnpike about 7 miles from Nashville by a Union brigade under Colonel Miller. On November 5th Morgan made a dash at a Federal camp north of the Cumberland, but was repulsed with some loss. The same active chieftain on the 9th was driven out of Gallatin by a detachment of General Crittenden's corps, and the next day was beaten at Lebanon, where the Federalists captured a quantity of stores and some prisoners. On the following morning Morgan returned and carried off thirty men from the Union camp, soon after which exploit he joined the rebel army near Murfreesboro'.

Colonel Forrest's cavalry was also active in the same part of the State, but the vigorous measures of the Federal generals soon succeeded in checking this species of irregular warfare.

Some of the Federal soldiers, however, had been guilty of excesses hardly less outrageous than those of the guerillas, and rigid orders were issued by General Grant to prevent it.

On the 7th of November, a portion of one of the Illinois regiments broke open a shop at Jackson, Tenn., and plundered and destroyed property to the value of some $1,242. General Grant ordered that sum to be assessed against the regiment, and such of its officers as were absent without leave at the time when the depredations were committed, the money when collected to be paid to the persons who had suffered by the outrage; and two officers who had failed to prevent it were mustered out of the service.

Toward the close of the same month, apian was matured by the governor and General Rosecrans for requiring bonds and sureties for good behavior from persons suspected as disunionists, or known to have been formerly secessionists.

On the 7th, a brigade of General Dumont's division was captured by Colonel Morgan, at Hartsville, near Nashville, having been surprised in their camp, and forced to surrender after a short and desultory resistance. The Confederate military authorities proclaimed a general conscription in Tennessee," and proceeded to draft into the Confederate army all able-bodied men under 40, in the portions of the State under their control. The Union men made a determined resistance, but in general, as might be supposed, with little effect. Even in Middle and West Tennessee, where the national Page 769 arms were nominally paramount, the guerillas were employed to drive conscripts into the ranks. East Tennessee suffered still more severely, and.it is stated that particular care was had to draft into the Confederate ranks those persons who were most conspicuous for their devotion to the Union.

In accordance with the President's order of October 21st, Governor Johnson, in the early part of December, issued a proclamation, calling for an election of representatives to the 87th Congress, to be held on the 29th, in the Ninth and Tenth Districts of Tennessee. The Ninth District embraces the counties of Henry, Weakly, Dyer, Oberon, Lauderdale, Tipton, Gipson, Carroll, and Henderson, and the Tenth includes the counties of Haywood, Madison, Hardeman, Fayette, and Shelby. The governor ends his proclamation with the notice that "no person will be considered an elector qualified to vote who, in addition to the other qualifications required by law, does not give satisfactory evidence to the judges holding the election, of his loyalty to the Government of the United States."

About the same time, Governor Johnson published an order assessing the wealthy secessionists of Nashville and the vicinity to the amount of $00,000, for the support of the poor during the winter.

On the 20th, a body of Confederate horsemen made a raid on the railroad near Jackson, in the western part of the State, burned a long trestle work, and tore up the track for a considerable distance. The day following, a small guerilla force entered the suburbs of Memphis, pillaged several shops, and carried off 100 cattle and 180 mules. As the armies of Generals Bragg and Rosecrans began to prepare for battle, the guerilla raids became more numerous and more destructive; Nashville was again almost isolated, and the situation of the Union troops, in continual danger of having their supplies sent off, became extremely precarious. Soon after the close of the year, the Chattanooga "Rebel" published the following from an official source:

General Morgan's report of bis expedition shows that 2,000 prisoners were paroled, and several hundred of the enemy killed and wounded, and an immense quantity of arms and property destroyed. Forrest's report shows 1,500 prisoners taken, 1,000 of the enemy killed and wounded, an immense quantity of arms, ammunition, and stores destroyed, and his whole command splendidly equipped from their captures.

Our operations at Murfreesboro', including the capture of 5,000 prisoners and the capture or 2,000 at Hartsville and around Nashville, sum up 10,000 prisoners in less than a month.

We have also captured and sent to the rear 80 cannon, 60,000 small arms, with 2,000 more in the hands of our troops; 1,500 wagons destroyed, and the mules and harnesses secured. The enemy's loss in killed and wounded is estimated at 20,000, including 7 generals.

The exploits of Cols. Forrest and Morgan referred to in this summary were performed principally in the latter half of December, but  the greater part of the figures set down in the subsequent part of the article should be credited to the year 1863. For the more extensive military movements, and the battles in Tennessee, see Army Operations.

NASHVILLE. Intelligence of the capture of Fort Donelson reached Nashville on Sunday, February 16, and produced the utmost consternation. The Confederate governor, Harris, immediately convened the Legislature, but they speedily adjourned to Memphis, whither the public archives and money were also removed. On the same day, General A. S. Johnston passed through the city on his retreat from Bowling Green, and, before nightfall, hundreds of families were abandoning their homes and making their way southward. The general confusion was increased by the destruction of unfinished steamers at the wharves, and the free distribution of the stores by the military authorities to all who would take them. On Monday the public stores were closed, and an effort was made by General Floyd, who had been placed in command of the city, to recover what had already been given out; but on Tuesday the distribution began again, and continued until Saturday morning. On Tuesday night the troops destroyed the wire bridge and railroad bridge across the Cumberland river, in spite of the earnest remonstrances of the leading citizens. The former cost $150,000, and the latter $250,000. Governor Harris made a speech recommending the citizens to burn their private property, and calling on Tennesseeans to rally and meet him at Memphis, but little or no response was made to his appeal. The machinery was removed from many of the most important workshops and carried to Chattanooga. On the 23d, the rear guard of the Confederates evacuated the city, and the same day the advance of General Buell's column occupied Edgefield, a small town on the opposite side of the river. The next day Mayor Cheatham and a committee from Nashville waited upon the general, and agreed to surrender the city at a certain hour on the following morning (the 25th), receiving assurances that the liberty and property of all citizens should be sacredly respected. Before the surrender was effected, however, General Nelson arrived with his column on transports, accompanied by the gunboat St. Louis, and landed at Nashville. The following proclamation was afterward issued by the mayor:

The committee representing the city authorities and people have discharged their duty by calling on General Buell, at his headquarters, in Edgefield, on yesterday. The interview was satisfactory to the committee, and there is every assurance of safety and protection to the people, both in their persons and property. I therefore respectfully request that business be resumed, and that all our citizens of every trade and profession pursue their regular vocations. The county elections will take place on the regular day, and all civil business will be conducted as heretofore. Commanding General Buell assures me that I can rely upon bis aid in enforcing our police regulations. One branch of business is entirely prohibited, viz., the sale or giving away of intoxicating liquors. I shall not hesitate to invoke the aid of General Buell in case the recent laws upon the subject are violated. I most earnestly call upon the people of the surrounding country, who are inside the Federal lines, to resume their commerce with the city, and bring in their market supplies, especially wood, butter, and eggs, assuring them that they will be fully protected and amply remunerated.

         B. B. CHEATHAM, Mayor.

The city remained perfectly quiet, and the Federal troops, to use the words of the Confederate press, "conducted themselves with marked propriety." The Union feeling in the city, however, was for many weeks extremely faint. A correspondent, writing ten days after General Buell's arrival, says: "The disagreeable, but irresistible conviction forces itself upon the mind of even a superficial observer, that whatever the number and wannness of Unionists may have been at the time when, and for some time after Tennessee was juggled out of the Union, eight out of every ten have been made submissionists by the protracted secession pressure Page 597 that was brought to hear upon them." The same writer adds: "Most of the stores continue closed. But few male and fewer female inhabitants are visible upon the streets. Victorious soldiery alone enliven them. Half of the private residences are deserted, and add further gloom to the aspect by their closed doors and window shutters and grave-like stillness. Hardly less than a third of the population must yet be absent."

Senator Andrew Johnson, military governor of Tennessee, by appointment of President Lincoln, Horace Maynard, M. C, Emerson Etheridge, and other prominent Union exiles, arrived at Nashville on March 12, and the next evening delivered speeches, which were listened to with considerable favor by a large audience. The newspapers of Nashville had all suspended publication on the evacuation of the city by the Confederates, but they soon reappeared, and one of Governor Johnson's first official acts was to place them under military supervision. The "Daily Times," in consequence of this measure, was discontinued. On the 10th of April, a daily paper was started, under the title of the " Daily Nashville Union."

On the 25th of March, Governor Johnson requested the municipal officers to take the oath of allegiance. The city council refused, by a vote of 16 to 1, and the following reply was accordingly sent to the governor:

City Hall, Nashville, March 27,1862.

General Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of the State of Tennessee:

Sir: Your communication of the 25th inst. requiring the mayor, members of the city council, police, and other city officials, to take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, pursuant to the first section of the tenth article of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee, has been received and duly considered.

We respectfully beg leave to submit the following facts for your Excellency's consideration: Since we have had any connection with the city Government, which, in some cases, has been for several years, we have never before been required to take any other oath than the simple oath of office, to discharge our respective duties faithfully; and upon a reference to the records of the city, running back for twenty-five or thirty, years, we find that no former mayor nor aldermen have taken any oath to support either the Constitution of the State of Tennessee or the United States; but the understanding seems to have been that the provision of the Constitution referred to applied only to State and county, and not to corporation officers.

We have also consulted some of our best lawyers upon the subject, and the majority of them are of opinion that we, as municipal officers, do not come within the purview and meaning of said section of the Constitution, but that the same applies alone to State and county officials.

Under the foregoing facts and circumstances, and we having taken the only oath ever taken by, or required or, our predecessors, and never having been required to take any oath inimical to our allegiance to the United States or the State Government, we respectfully ask to be excused from taking the oath sent us, honestly believing that, under the Constitution and our charter, we are not properly subject to such requirement, and believing that the same was made of us under a misapprehension of what had been required heretofore.

On the 29th the mayor and several other citizens were arrested for treason, and a few days later Governor Johnson issued a proclamation ejecting from office the mayor and most of the city councilmen, and appointing other persons to fill their places. Numerous arrests were made for disunion practices about the same time.

On April 24 the following resolutions were adopted by the city council:

Resolved, That the Mayor of the city of Nashville is requested and instructed to have the flag of the United States placed upon all public property belonging to the Corporation.

Resolved, That the Board of Education ore hereby requested, during the present week, to take the oath of office taken by ourselves and other officers of the city.

Resolved, That the Superintendent, together with every teacher in each of the public schools of the city of Nashville, shall be and they are hereby requested to take the oath of allegiance prescribed to us within five days from the passage of this resolution, or resign their respective positions.

The last resolution was lost in the board of Aldermen. The condition of the city on the 1st of May is thus described by the " Union":

"Our courts are proceeding pretty much as formerly. The United States court is in session, and the regular business pursuing its accustomed channels. Process is being issued daily from the circuit and chancery courts, returnable to their next terms. The magistrates' courts are also in continuous session. Business is beginning to recover and to wear its accustomed appearance, and as facilities are being opened with the country, it is extending in all directions. Our city market is daily improving. Prices are rapidly moderating to a reasonable standard, and custom proportionately increasing. The passenger and freight trains on the Louisville and Nashville railroad are making daily trips. The cars on the Tennessee and Alabama road run as far as Columbia; those on the Nashville and Chattanooga road run as far as Wartrace, and connect by branch road with Shelbyville. Houses left vacant, some time since, are now nearly all occupied, and the inquiry for houses to rent is becoming active. This is the case with both dwelling and business houses. Some sales in real estate are being effected at reasonably good prices. Confidence in our State currency is being restored, and there is a corresponding appreciation in the value of our bank notes."

A great Union meeting was held at Nashville on the 12th. (See Tennessee.)

On the 24th several Confederate newspaper offices and other establishments were seized by the United States marshal, in accordance with the general confiscation act passed by Congress.

On the 29th General Dumont, commanding the Federal forces at Nashville, issued the following order respecting trade with the interior:

General Orders No. 7.

Whereas, it is represented to rac that salt, bacon, coffee, iron, leather, medicines, and other goods, are being sold in this city and finally find their way to the enemy:

Page 598 It is ordered that no goods shall be sold in, or taken away from, this town or vicinity, toward the enemy's lines, without a written permit from the Provost Marshal of the city, which permit shall specify and contain an accurate fist of the articles that may be bought, sold, and shipped; but this prohibition shall not apply to necessary articles, not contraband, in small quantities absolutely necessary for family use, sold to citizens of the town or neighborhood, the person selling and buying and transporting being held to a rigid accountability that no improper use is made of the same.

Any person violating this order, or in any way aiding or consenting to its violation, will be held as an enemy and punished accordingly.

All guards and officers are charged with the arrest of any and all persons violating this order, and will examine wagons and other vehicles of transportation, to see that it is enforced.

On June 8 an order was published entirely forbidding the retailing of intoxicating liquors.

On July 13 the Nashville " Union" published the names of some 700 persons, a portion of those who had voluntarily taken the oath of allegiance before the provost marshal in that city.

The ravages of the guerillas in the vicinity of Nashville caused great alarm, and it was believed that they were about marching upon the city, which at this time was but ill prepared for a defence. At the suggestion of a few private persons the military band of the 69th Ohio marched through the streets on the 14th, and word being given that the loyal citizens would hold a meeting for the purpose of organizing a force for home defence, in a short time a large procession gathered and proceeded to the capitol. Here they were addressed by the governor, the mayor, and other persons, and the governor, in the course of his speech, made the following offer: "All loyal men who will take the obligation, will be furnished with arms and ammunition. If the volunteers serve as much as a month, they shall be paid for their time, and if absent from home shall receive rations."

A large force was very soon recruited, and reinforcements arrived also from the army, so that the panic died out. Toward the end of the month the guerrillas succeeded for a time in completely cutting off communications by railroad and telegraph between Nashville and the North. Some of the streets of the city were barricaded on the night of July 21, in anticipation of the approach of Colonel Forrest, and the work of fortifying the city was pushed forward with the greatest possible rapidity. One thousand negroes, belonging to Confederate slaveowners of the county, were impressed by Colonel Miller, commanding the post, to labor on the fortifications. Their masters were required to provide them with tools and subsistence, and the length of service and terms of payment were to be fixed by the Government. About the middle of August railroad communication with Nashville was again cut off; prices of nearly all the necessaries of life rose to an unprecedented height, and apprehensions were felt of a scarcity of provisions. The demolished tracks and bridges were replaced as speedily as possible, but intercourse continued extremely precarious and irregular.

The following circular was addressed by Governor Johnson to a number of the richest secessionists of Nashville, especially to those who had distinguished themselves by their hostility to the Federal Government or their active friendship for the rebel authorities:

State of Tennessee, Executive. Department,

Nashville, August 18, 1862.

Sir: Therefore many wives and helpless children in the city of Nashville, and county of Davidson, who have been reduced to poverty and wretchedness in consequence of their husbands and fathers having been forced into the armies of this unholy and nefarious rebellion. Their necessities have become so manifest, and their demands for the necessaries of life so urgent, that the laws of justice and humanity would be violated unless something was done to relieve their suffering and destitute condition. You are therefore requested to contribute the sum of dollars, which you will pay over within the next five days to James Whitworth, Esq., Judge of the County Court, to be by him distributed among these destitute families in such manner as may be prescribed.

         Respectfully, &c.,

ANDREW JOHNSON, Military Governor.

Attest:

Edward H. East, Secretary of State.

The sums thus assessed ranged from $50 to $300.

General Rousseau took command at Nashville about the 28th of August, by which date the capital was again, for the fourth time since its occupation by the Union forces, completely isolated from the North. General Rousseau was succeeded a week or two later by Major-General Thomas, and he shortly afterward by General Negley. In view of a threatened attack upon the city by General Bragg, police and military regulations were made more stringent. On the 9th of September an order was issued by the provost marshal forbidding the "sale of intoxicating liquors (spirituous, malt, or vinous), wholesale or retail, publicly or privately," in the city of Nashville and vicinity; and on the 10th the following order was published by command of General Thomas:

Hereafter any citizen found in the streets of Nashville between the hours of 9 p. m. and reveille (daylight) without a written pass, will be arrested and confined. Passes to be out after 9 o'clock p. m. will only be granted at the headquarters of the Major-general Commanding.

The Confederate generals J. R. Anderson and Forrest, with the Confederate governor, Harris, concentrated & largo force with the avowed purpose of assaulting Nashville; but on October 7 were completely routed at Lavergno, 15 m. from the city by a detachment of General Negley's forces under command of General Palmer. Soon afterward a force of 8,000 or 10,000 Confederates appeared before Nashville and opened a cannonade from a hastily constructed battery, but they were driven off with little difficulty, the movement having been probably a feint to cover other operations. At the same time Colonel Morgan's guerillas attempted to destroy the railroad bridge at Nashville (which had" been rebuilt, Page 599  but were repulsed with some loss. The army and citizens were now subsisting almost entirely upon supplies obtained by foraging in the neighborhood; and as the Confederates not only restricted to a few miles the area within which General Negley's forage parties could safely operate, but also ravaged the country themselves almost to the outskirts of the city, provisions soon became distressingly scarce. When the advance of General Rosecrans's army reached Nashville, early in November, reopening communication with the North, the troops had been for some time on half rations. From this period until the close of the year the city was the headquarters of General Rosecrans.

About the 20th of November the board of trade appointed in the spring to grant recommendations to loyal persons wishing to ship goods to Nashville resumed operations, and permits to a limited extent were given to traders friendly to the Government.

On the 9th, in order to prevent misunderstandings between citizens and soldiers, General Rosecrans issued an order reminding the troops that loyal men were entitled to all the rights, privileges and protection due to any citizen; that peaceable inhabitants, whether loyal or not, were entitled to immunity from violence and plunder, subject only to needful surveillance; and that outspoken rebels could claim no other protection than that afforded by the laws of war and humanity. Citizens guilty of any acts of hostility, or belonging to partisan corps, being removed beyond the reach of proper military control, were to be treated as pirates and robbers. Soldiers were strictly forbidden to enter private grounds or houses without written permission or order from a commissioned officer, who was to be held responsible for all that was done. Another order, addressed to provost marshals and their deputies, gave special instructions for avoiding unjust and unnecessary arrests of private persons. General Orders No. 23, after prescribing regulations for sutlers, designed to prevent goods from being passed South through the lines of the army, announced that "in towns and cities now or hereafter within the lines of this army, no one will be allowed to sell goods needed for the use of the resident citizens, unless he be a resident trader."

On December 18 Governor Johnson published a proclamation, nearly identical in terms with his circular latter of August 18, calling attention to the destitute condition of the widows, wives, and children of Confederate soldiers, and ordering an assessment of some $60,000 for their benefit, "from those who contributed directly or indirectly to bring about this unfortunate state of affairs." The population of Nashville in 1860 was 16,988.

TEXAS, the most south-western of all the States, was so completely cut off from communication outside of the Confederacy, during the year 1862, that but little is known of the internal affairs of the State. The increase in the population of the State during the ten years ending June, 1860, was 391,622, of whom 131,405 were slaves. For the further details of the census of 1860 relative to this State the reader is referred to United States.

The crops of the State in 1862 were good, and that of grain was the largest ever known. Beef, mutton, corn, and wheat were plentiful and cheap'. Thousands of cattle were sent across the Mississippi to feed the Confederate army, and immense supplies of grain. In addition to these supplies, Texas furnished as many men to the army, in proportion to the population, as any other State. In July she had furnished forty-eight regiments, or forty-five thousand men, out of a voting population of sixty-four thousand. This number of troops was increased to sixty-four regiments. The conscript act wa3 also fully enforced. Even many churches were abandoned by their pastors for the army. In the Confederate Congress, on a motion to authorize the President to receive into service any regiments of conscripts organized by any commanding officer west of the Mississippi, Mr. Oldham, the Senator from Texas, thus spoke of affairs there:

The section west of the Mississippi was as important as any part of the Confederacy; but regiments after regiments have been transported east of the Mississippi, and far beyond the Alleghany mountains, to fight battles in Virginia. I am proud of the fact that they were brought hero, inasmuch as they were not needed at the time and were an enormous expense to the Government. The enemy are going to make one convulsive movement, and I think it will be their last. My impression is, that they will make an effort soon west of the Mississippi. I have received information from an officer in the Engineer Department that the enemy has obtained a footing upon the Gulf coast; they have possession of the Aransas Pass. They are building gunboats of light draft which they can run up the Tittle streams and take possession of the entire coast. The troops of Arkansas are united with us by fate—the same destiny pertains to the one as to the other; and Missouri is linked in the same chain of food or ill fortune. The best troops of Texas you are transported cast of the Mississippi, brought to Virginia, put into the hottest part of the contest, where they have been decimated, and now three fourths of each regiment from Texas sleep in their £raves or have been discharged on account of sickness, et this Government continue to draw on the fighting population of Texas to keep up these regiments and Texas will be ruined, irretrievably ruined! I think it is wrong and impolitic and unjust. My constituents have families, property, and homes to defend, and 1 protest against the men west of the Mississippi being transferred east of it, leaving their country open to the incursions of the enemy north, east, west, and south.

On the wild goose Sibley expedition thirty-five hundred of the very best troops of Texas were sent to perish on the arid plains of New Mexico, and they have only drawn the enemy upon our frontier, ready to come down upon us this winter. If the Government had sent these troops with other troops in Arkansas, and struck into Missouri, and there raised a hundred thousand men, which she would have furnished, seizing St. Louis, and made a diversion in favor of Tennessee and Kentucky, what would not have been accomplished that now remains to be done at the sacrifice of oceans of blood! I do not think it is just to deplete those States west of the Mississippi of their protective forces, that their troops should do brought away to fight the battles of the populous States.

Some military movements of interest took place on the coast. On the 17th of May the commander of the Federal naval forces before Galveston, Henry Eagle, summoned the place to surrender " to prevent the effusion of blood and the destruction of property which would result from the bombardment of the town," also stating that the land and naval forces would appear in a few days. The reply was that "when the land and naval forces made their appearance the demand would be answered." The city, however, was finally taken on the 8th of October. The military and the municipal authorities retired, and the inhabitants appointed a temporary mayor. On the morning of that day Commander Renshaw, with four steamers, approached so as to command the city with the guns of his vessels, and upon a signal the mayor came off to the flag ship. The mayor requested Commander Renshaw to communicate to him his intentions in regard to the city, informing him at the same time of its abandonment by the military, of the absence of the mayor and city council, and of his appointment as mayor protem. by a meeting of citizens.

Page 774

Commander Renshaw replied that he had come for the purpose of taking possession of the city; that it was at his mercy under his guns; that he should not interfere in the municipal affairs of the city; that the citizens might go on and conduct their business as heretofore; that he did not intend to occupy the city for the present, or until the arrival of a military commander; but that he intended to hoist the United States flag upon the public buildings, and that his flag should be respected. Whereupon the mayor pro tem. answered that he could not guarantee to him the protection of the flag; that he would do everything in his power, but that persons over whom he had no control might take down the flag and create a difficulty.

Commander Renshaw replied that, although in his previous communications with the military commander he had insisted that the flag should be protected by the city, still he thought it would be onerous upon the good citizens; and, to avoid any difficulty like that which occurred in New Orleans, he would waive that point, and when he sent the flag ashore he would send a sufficient force to protect it, and that he would not keep the flag flying for more than a quarter or half an hour—sufficient to show the absolute possession.

Commander Renshaw further said that he Would insist upon the right for any of his men in charge of an officer to come on shore and walk the streets of the city, but that he would not permit his men to come on shore indiscriminately or in the night; that, should his men insult citizens, he gave the mayor the right to arrest and report them to him, when he would punish them more rigidly than the mayor possibly could; but, on the other hand, should any of his men be insulted or shot at in the streets of Galveston, or any of his ships or boats be shot at from the land or wharves, he would hold the city responsible and open his broadsides on the same instantly; that his guns were kept shotted and double shotted for that purpose; that it was the determination of his Government to hold Galveston at all hazards until the end of the war.

Commander Renshaw thus held the city, in which a small military force was placed, until the 1st of January, when it was captured by the Texans. The Federal naval force in possession at this time consisted of the gunboats "Westfield, Harriet Lane, Clifton, Owasco, Corypheus, and Sachem, the latter being broken down. The troops on shore were two hundred and fifty men under Colonel Burnel, of the Massachusetts 42d regiment. On the night previous, information was received by the commanding officers of both the land and naval forces that such an attack would be made. At 1 30 a. m. on the night of the 1st two or three Confederate steamers were discovered in the bay by the Clifton and Westfield. Soon after the force on shore was informed by their pickets that the Confederate artillery was in possession of the market place, about one quarter of a mile distant from the wharf on which they were quartered. The attack commenced on shore about 3 a. m., by the enemy, upon the Federal troops, which were defended by the Sachem and Corypheus, with great energy, the troops only replying with musketry, having no artillery. About dawn the Harriet Lane was attacked, or, rather, attacked two Confederate steamers, one of which, the Bayou City, was armed with 68pounder rifle guns, had 200 troops, and was barricaded with cotton bales, some twenty feet from the water line. The other, the Neptune, was similarly barricaded, and was armed with two small brass pieces and 160 men— (both were common river steamers). The Harriet Lane was under way in time, and went up to the attack, firing her bow gun, which was answered by the Confederates, but their 68-pounder burst at the third fire.

The Harriet Lane then ran into the Bayou City, carrying away her whole guard, passed her and gave her a broadside that did her little or no damage. The other Confederate steamer then ran into the Harriet Lane, but was so disabled by the collision that she was soon afterward obliged to back in on the flats, where she sunk in about eight feet of water, near to the scene of action. The Bayou City turned into the Harriet Lane, and she remained secured to her by catching under her guard, pouring in incessant volleys of musketry, as did the other steamer, which was returned by the Harriet Lane, with musketry. This drove the Harriet Lane's men from her guns, and probably wounded Commander Wainwright and Lieutenant Commander Lee—the latter mortally. She was then carried by boarding, by the Bayou City; her commander was summoned to surrender, which he refused to do, gallantly defending himself with his revolver until killed. But five of the Harriet Lane's men were killed, and five wounded. One hundred and ten, inclusive of officers and wounded men, were landed on shore, prisoners.

The Owasco, which had been anchored below the town, moved up at the commencement of the attack, and engaged the Confederate artillery on shore. When it was light enough for her to observe the two Confederate steamers alongside of the Harriet Lane, she moved up to her assistance, grounding several times, owing to the narrowness of the channel. Occasionally she brought her 11-inch gun to bear, but was soon driven off by the fire of the Confederate musketry. Soon the howitzers of the Harriet Lane opened on her, and she backed down below, continuing her engagement on shore. All her rifle gun crew were wounded.

The Clifton, before the action commenced, went around into Bolivar Channel to render assistance to the steamer Westfield, which had got under weigh when the Confederate steamers were first discovered. Soon after, she got Page 775  hard and fast ashore, at high water, and made a signal for assistance. When the Clifton was in the act of rendering this assistance, the flashes of the Confederate guns were first seen in the town. Commander Renshaw then directed Lieutenant Commander Law to leave him and to return to the town.

The moon had now gone down, and it became quite dark, yet the Clifton, with some difficulty, got around in the other channel, opening her batteries upon Fort Point, which the Confederates now had possession of, shelling them out and driving them up the beach as she neared the town. Here she anchored, and continued the engagement, but did not proceed up to the rescue of the Harriet Lane, owing to the failure of the Owasco, the intricacy of the channel, and the apprehension of killing the crew of the Harriet Lane, who were then exposed upon her upper deck. It was now about half past seven a. m. A white flag was hoisted on the Harriot Lane. A boat bearing a flag of truce, with a Confederate officer and an acting mister of the Harriet Lane, came down to the Clifton, informing her commander of the capture of the Harriet Lane, the death of her commander and first lieutenant, and the killing and wounding of two thirds of her crow.

The proposition was made by the Confederate officer that all the Federal vessels should surrender, and one be allowed, with the crews of all, to leave the harbor, or they would proceed to capture them with the Harriet Lane and all their steamers, three more of which were in sight. These were neither armed nor barricaded. Upon being informed of this proposition, Commander Renshaw refused to consent, and directed Lieutenant Law to return and get all the vessels out of port as soon as possible, and, as he could not get the Westfield afloat, he should blow her up, and go on board the army transports Saxon and M. A. Bardman, then near him. Lieut. Law returned to execute these directions. Meanwhile, the Confederates had hauled the Harriet Lane alongside the wharf, and had made prisoners of the troops on shore, although it had been understood that all should remain in status quo until the answer was returned. When the Clifton was half way toward the bar, her commander was informed by a boat from the Westfield, that, in the explosion of that vessel (which they observed some half an hour before), Commander Renshaw, Lieutenant Zimmerman, Engineer Green, and some ten or fifteen of the crew, had perished, the explosion boing premature. Lieutenant Commander Law, now being commanding officer, proceeded to cross his vessel over the bar, and finally concluded to abandon the blockade altogether, considering the Owasco as his only efficient vessel, and regarding her as not equal to resist an attack from the Harriet Lane, should she come out for that purpose.

The vessels which were left in possession of the Confederates were the Harriet Lane and two coal barks, the Caralto and Elias Pike. The only injury sustained by the Harriet Lane appears to have been from a twelve-inch shell under her counter, fired by the Owasco, and the damage to her guard from the collision.

VIRGINIA, the most populous of the Southern States, increased in the number of inhabitants 174.657 during the ten years ending June 1860. (See United States for further details of the census.)

The State of Virginia, by its local position and resources, occupied the most prominent position in the Confederate States. The Confederate capital was located within her borders, and the strength of the Confederacy was exerted to preserve her from occupation by the Federal troops. The considerations which induced the State to secede from the Union were stated by the governor, in a message to the Legislature of the State, on the 6th of January 1862, to have been as follows:

Virginia dissolved her connection with the Government of the United States on the 17th day of April last, having watched closely the political conduct of President Lincoln and his cabinet from the 4th of March preceding. A large portion of our people believed, from the revelations of his inaugural message, that he designed to subjugate the South, and much of his policy, as developed in the first six weeks of bis administration, tended to confirm and strengthen this belief. The appearance of his proclamation, however, calling on Virginia and other States for volunteers, removed all doubts, and made it plain and palpable that subjugation was his object. He had revealed his purpose by the issue of his proclamation, to use Virginians, if possible, in coercing their Southern slaveholding brethren into submission to his will and obedience to his Government and authority. Virginia, seeing that the only hope of preserving her rights and honor as a State, and the liberties of her people, consisted in dissolving her connection with the Government of the United States and resuming her sovereignty, adopted that course, and subsequently determined to unite her destiny with her Southern sisters. She did so; and her convention, being at the time in session, adopted such ordinances and regulations as were necessary to protect her citizens against the machinations of enemies at home and the encroachments of enemies from abroad.

Events that have transpired since the 17th day of April last have more than confirmed the worst apprehensions of the people of Virginia, and have furnished an ample and complete justification for the secession of the State. All the wicked results apprehended when she seceded have been fearfully realized, and they now constitute an important chapter in the history of the stirring times in which we live. Such were the considerations that influenced and determined the action of Virginia.

The term of office of the governor expires on January 1, 1864. The Legislature of the State assembles annually at Richmond on the second Monday of January. Some matters of a general interest took place at the regular session in 1862. Two Senators were elected to the Confederate Congress, viz., R. M. T. Hunter and Wm. Ballard Preston. The other candidates nominated were James Barbour and Wm. O. Rives. The State convention had, at its last session, passed a bill providing for the enrollment of free negroes to be drafted, to serve in the Confederate army for the term of one hundred and eighty days. A bill was passed subjecting the enrolling officers to a fine of fifty to a hundred dollars for neglect to discharge their duty. An amendment to reduce the time to one hundred and twenty days, out of regard to the families of the negroes, was rejected.

On the successes of the Federal troops in Kentucky and North Carolina, the governor sent a message to the Legislature, urging them to prepare for the danger which threatened, he said:

"A crisis is upon us. The results of recent reverses to our arms at Mill Springs, Fort Henry, and Roanoke Island appeal in the strongest terms to our patriotism, and demand an exhibition of all our energies, an uncompromising spirit, and stern and determined resolution.

The exigencies of the times are not duly appreciated by many of our people; the dangers which environ us are too lightly estimated. We must see and feel their imminence before we can be aroused to that action which is necessary to save us from alarming ills, and to avert evils which threaten our existence, our peace, and our organization as a government.

It cannot but be apparent to every mind that the object of our enemies is to cut off our southern connections by railroad and otherwise, and to defeat the transportation of troops from one point to another with certainty and celerity, as our necessities may demand. This result accomplished, and one great step will have been taken toward their success and our subjugation."

He further remarked that the capture of Richmond, which is the special purpose of the Federal Government, would be an irreparable blow to the Confederate cause, as the city was rendering it great aid by its mechanical and manufacturing resources. Therefore, in order to save that city and other cities, and prevent the subjugation of Virginia, he proposed that the male inhabitants of all the cities and towns be subjected to ordinary and extraordinary draft, by which means all males between the ages of sixteen and sixty would be available for the defence of the State. He also proposed that the Legislature should require all places of business to be closed at 2 o'clock p. m., and the whole force drafted as aforesaid to turn out for discipline and instruction.

On the call for troops by the Confederate Government, the Legislature passed a bill which provided for filling up the companies in the field to 100 men, authorized the governor to call for volunteers, and, if the requisite number was not obtained, to make a draft from the enrolled militia.

Even at this date the distillation of whiskey had increased to such an extent as to affect the supply of corn. Two hundred establishments had commenced within six months. Petitions from all quarters of the State were 6ent to the Legislature, requesting that its distillation should be prohibited. This was done by an act of that body.

An other act was passed prohibiting the issue of licenses to sell any kind of merchandise to foreign-born citizens who had not been naturalized. The reason of this was, because such persons, in order to avoid the draft for Page 799 soldiers put themselves under the protection of foreign consuls.

Another act prohibited the issue of licenses for a less period than a year, and annulled the permission to dealers to close out by auction. Instead of increasing, this measure diminished the State revenue. The first week in May was signalized as the great week of auctions in Richmond. Many first-class houses were thus closed. The blockade prevented these houses from replenishing their stocks of goods, but they would have continued in business with the remnants of their stock if they had been allowed to take out licenses for fractions of a year, and then sell out at auction.

The regular session of the Legislature closed in March, but an extra session was commenced soon after.

As the Federal army approached the capital, Richmond, the determination of the authorities to defend it increased. It was regarded as the point in which " centered the hopes and apprehensions of the South." The Legislature adopted a resolution relative to its defence, and the governor issued the following proclamation:

The General Assembly of this commonwealth having resolved that" the capital of the State shall be defended to the last extremity, if such defence is in accordance with the views of the President of the Confederate States, and having declared that whatever destruction and loss of property of the State or individuals shall thereby result will be cheerfully submitted to, and this action being warmly approved and seconded by the Executive,

Therefore, I do hereby request all officers who are out of service, from any cause, and all others who may be willing to unite in defending the capital of this State, to assemble this evening at the City Hall, at 5 o'clock, and proceed forthwith to organize a force to co-operate with the Tredegar battalion, and any other force which may be detailed for the purpose indicated. The organization, upon being reported to the Executive, win be recognized and properly officered, as prescribed by law, and be subject to the orders of the Governor, for local defence, under regulations to be hereafter prescribed.

Prompt and efficient action is absolutely necessary. We have a gallant army in the field, upon whom we fully and confidently rely; but no effort should be spared which can contribute to the noble object. The capital of Virginia must not be surrendered. Virginians must rally to the rescue.

Given under my hand and under the seal of the [l. s.] the Commonwealth, at Richmond, this l5th day of May, 1862, and in the eighty-sixth year of the Commonwealth.

JOHN LETCHER.

The following resolution relative to partisan rangers was adopted on May 17:

Whereas this General Assembly places a high estimate upon the value of the ranger or partisan service in prosecuting the present war to a successful issue, and regards it as perfectly legitimate, and it being understood that a federal commander on the northern border of Virginia has intimated his purpose, if such service be not discontinued, to lay waste by fire the portion of our territory at present under his power:

Resolved by the General Assembly, That, in its opinion, the policy of employing such rangers and partisans ought to be carried out energetically, both by the authorities of this State and of the Confederate States, without the slightest regard to such threats.

A message of the governor to the Legislature at the beginning of this extra session, May 5, states that a conscription act has been passed by the Confederate Congress. His views in relation to it were thus expressed:

Since your adjournment the Confederate Congress have passed a conscription bill, which relieves the General Assembly, in a great measure, from the necessity of further legislation in regard to military matters. This bill divests the State authorities of all control over the troops of Virginia, and vests in the Confederate Government the power to enroll all persons between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, organize them, commission the officers, call them into service, and dispose of them in such manner as they may deem advisable.

It is my deliberate conviction that this act is unconstitutional, but, taking into consideration the peculiar condition of affairs existing at the time of its passage, I forbear to debate the question at present. When the war is ended we can discuss these questions, and so settle them as to preserve the rights of the States. Harmony, unity, and conciliation are indispensable to success now, and I will, as the Executive of the State (protesting against it as an infringement of State rights), acquiesce in its passage, and respectfully and earnestly urge upon our people, as I have uniformly done, a prompt and cheerful response to its requirements. drive the invader from our soil, establish the independence of the Southern Confederacy, and then we can mark, clearly and distinctly the line between State and Confederate authority.

The loss of slave property sustained by the citizens of the State at this time was estimated by the governor to exceed the loss from the destruction of cotton or any other species of property. The counties in Virginia which had been overrun contained an aggregate slave population of 80,728, valued at $45,000,000, which had been lost to the citizens.

The principle of emancipation with compensation proposed by President Lincoln in a message to Congress in March, attracted somo attention at Richmond, and the following joint resolution indicative of some of the views entertained respecting it was introduced into the Senate:

The General Assembly of Virginia doth hereby declare that negroes in slavery in this State and the whole South (who are withal in a higher condition of civilization than any of their race has ever been elsewhere), having been a property of their masters for two hundred and forty years, by use and custom at first, and ever since by recognition of the public law in various forms, ought not to be, and cannot justly be, interfered with in that relation of property by the State, neither by the people in convention assembled to alter an existing constitution, or to form one for admission into the confederacy, nor by the representatives of the people in the State of the Confederate Legislature, nor by any means or mode which the popular majority might adopt; and that the State, whilst remaining republican in the structure of its government, can lawfully get rid of that species of property, if ever, only by the free consent of the individual owners, it being true, as the General Assembly doth further declare, that for the State, without the free consent of the owner, to deprive him of his identical property, by compelling him to accept a substituted value thereof, no matter how ascertained, or by the post nati policy, or in any other way not for the public use, but with a view to rid the State of such property already resident therein, and so to destroy the right of property in the subject, or to constrain the owner to send his slaves out of the State, or else to expatriate himself and carry them with him, Page 800 would contravene and frustrate the indispensable principles of free government; and whereas these Confederate States, being now all 'slaveholding, may be disturbed by some act of the majority in any one of them in derogation of the rights of the minority unless this doctrine above declared be interposed; therefore,

Resolved, by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the Governor of Virginia be, and he is hereby, requested to communicate this proceeding to the several governors of the Confederate States, and to request them to lay the same before their respective legislatures, and to request their concurrence therein in such way as they may severally deem best calculated to secure stability to the fundamental doctrine of Southern civilization which is hereby declared and proposed to be advanced.

Mr. Collier, the member who submitted the resolution, thus explained his purpose:

His reason for forbearing to ask a vote at this time, he said, was that he did not believe the public men of the South appreciate the doctrine announced. They do not appreciate it at its vital and most valuable point, which is its denial of the power of the majority, in making a constitution for a State, to disturb a preexisting and resident property. The prevalence of this doctrine in the intelligence of the world can alone give the slaveholding States exemption from war. It is the repudiation of this doctrine that is at the top and bottom, and in all the circumference of the struggle in which we are engaged. If the principal sentiments asserted in that declaration, and from which the doctrine proposed as the practical result is educed, be not sound in the philosophy of the subject, and ought not to be adopted into the public law, then negro slavery ought to be abolished, and Divine wisdom will accomplish the deliverance. But, he said, he did believe the sentiments sound and the doctrine logically inevitable, and that negro slavery will exist in the countries governed by the white race until the native land of the black man shall have been civilized and Christianized. Mr. Collier said he would only now add the desire that every newspaper in the Confederacy, and as many elsewhere as will, would publish that declaration.

On the 10th of May the Legislature adjourned to the first Monday in December. But on the 15th of September another special session was held. It was called together in reference to the scarcity of salt, which had become alarming. The proclamation of the governor calling an extra session thus explains the cause:

Whereas, it is represented by many citizens of this State that it is impossible to obtain supplies of the necessary article of salt, except at fabulous prices, and even then not in sufficient quantities to supply the demand, and a portion of the salt works of the Commonwealth, from which a large quantity of salt was derived, being in possession of the public enemy, and the remaining works, being owned by private persons and carried on by private enterprise, are insufficient to furnish the amount necessary for the consumption of our own people, and yet a large proportion of the annual product of the works is continually exported into the neighboring States:

And whereas the importation of foreign salt has been prevented by the blockade of our ports, and it is not probable that the demand can be supplied from that source; and the season is rapidly advancing when it will be necessary to salt up meats for the ensuing year to provide our armies and people with suitable provision; and the Legislature having made no appropriation of money to purchase or to manufacture this essential article, or to provide a remedy.

The result was the prohibition of the export of salt from the State, except upon contracts which had been previously made with the Confederate Government, until the State was supplied. At this session the following resolutions were offered in the Senate, relative to President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation:

Whereas Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by his recent proclamation, is acting in stolid contempt of the principles of property in slaves of African descent, which is no less consecrated in their Federal Constitution than in ours, and is aiming, by bis said proclamation, to excite a servile insurrection in our midst:

Resolved, therefore, That no person within this State shall be held to have committed any offence against the criminal laws thereof, or shall be tried, or imprisoned, or required by any magistrate, or judge, or police officer, to answer at any time for any act done in driving from the State, or putting to death by any means, any person, with or without arms, who may be found on our soil, aiding or abetting in any way to give effect in this State, or on its border, to the lawless and fiendish purposes of the said proclamation.

No action was taken upon it, and the Legislature, after a brief session, adjourned.

The new Constitution which had been drafted by the State convention was submitted to the voters of the State in March, and rejected.

The active state of hostilities within the limits of the State during the year interfered with all peaceful pursuits. The manufacturing industry of the people in the cities was occupied by the demands of the Confederate Government. Agriculture suffered by the reduction of laborers and the laying waste of the fields, except in those parts of the Stale removed from the scene of hostilities. Commerce was entirely cut off. The public institutions of education were closed, and the teachers became officers in the army. With wonderful earnestness and simplicity, Virginia sacrificed everything for the success of the Confederate Government. With the single exception that she would not allow conscripts to be taken from the camps of her militia, all the demands of the latter were acceded to. The spirit of ex-Governor Floyd prevented this invasion of what was deemed her State rights. Her blood and treasure, however, were poured out as no State is recorded to have done either in ancient or modern history. She gave the Confederate service, from her own armories and stores, 75,000 rifles and muskets, 233 pieces of artillery, a magnificent armory, containing all the machinery necessary for manufacturing arms on a large scale, and, after draining her arms-bearing population to the dregs in service of the Confederacy, raised a force of her own people to drive the Federal troops from her western border, which the Confederate Government were either unable or unwilling to do.

FRONT ROYAL, VA. the capital of Warren county, Virginia, is one mile east of the Shenandoah river, and 140 miles north of northwest of Richmond. The town is situated in a valley between the river and the Blue Ridge Mountains—the gap in which receives its name from the town. The railroad from Alexandria to Strasburg passes through this gap and the village. A plank road of 20 miles in length connects the latter with Winchester. Numerous flouring mills use the water power of the river. It was hero that the advance of General Jackson's force met a most spirited resistance from the 1st Maryland volunteers, under Colonel Kenly, on the 23d of May, which defeated his design to cut off the retreat of General Banks. It was subsequently, during the year, the scene of important military movements.

HARRISONBURG, VA. the capital of Rockingham county, Virginia, is a small village situated in a fertile country, west of the southern termination of the Massanutten mountain. It is near Cross Keys, the scene of the battle between Generals Fremont and Jackson, in the retreat of the latter from the pursuit of General Banks across the Potomac. The population was about 1,500. It is the termination of the Manassas Gap railroad.

VIRGINIA, WESTERN, which consists of the counties west of the Alleghany Mountains, has been represented in both houses of Congress and finally formed into an independent State. The proceedings which have been taken to reach this result of the formation of a new State out of a part of a State are so important as to require an accurate description.

In the winter of 1860-61 the Legislature of the State of Virginia was convened in special session to consider the exigencies pressing upon the country in consequence of secession of the Gulf States. That Legislature passed a law directing the people of Virginia to elect delegates to a convention to be held on February 14th, at Richmond, to determine the duty of the State under the extraordinary circumstances with which she was surrounded. A vote was required to be taken at the same time when the delegates were elected, to decide whether, its the convention passed an ordinance of secession, it should be referred back to the people for their adoption or rejection. The majority of votes in favor of such reference was nearly sixty thousand. The convention assembled, an ordinance of secession was passed and formally referred to the people to be voted upon on the 4th Tuesday of May, 1861. The authorities of the State began to levy war against the United States on the next day after the passage of the ordinance, and Virginia was immediately annexed to the Confederate States, and their troops immediately occupied portions of the State. Mass meetings were immediately held in Western Virginia to take into consideration the best means of preserving their allegiance to the United States. A convention of nearly five hundred delegates assembled there early in May, 1861, which declared the ordinance of secession to be null and void; that its provision suspending the election of members of the Federal Government was a usurpation, and that if the ordinance of secession was ratified by a vote they recommended the election on June 4th of delegates to a general convention to be held on the 11th to devise such measures as the welfare of the people might demand. This convention met at Wheeling. Meantime nearly all the judicial and executive officers in that part of the State had fled to Richmond before the Federal forces. Legal protection to life, liberty, or property was given up. This convention declared the office of governor, &c, vacant, "by reason of those who occupied them having joined the rebellion," and proceeded to fill those offices. The action of this convention was not confined to Western Virginia, but intended to embrace the whole State. The governor elected thus stated the object of the convention:

It was not the object of the Wheeling convention to set up any new government in the State, or separate, or other government than the one under which they had always lived. They made a single alteration in the Constitution of the State, which prescribes the number of delegates in the General Assembly which shall be necessary to constitute a quorum.

A declaration was made by the convention, and an ordinance adopted for the reorganization of the State Government. According to this ordinance the Government to be reorganized, either in its executive or legislative departments, was not for a part of the State, but for all of Virginia. In conformity with this ordinance a State Government was reorganized in all its branches in every county of the State not occupied by an armed foe.

On the 20th of August, 1861, the convention passed an ordinance " to provide for the formation of a new State out of a portion of the territory of this State." In compliance with its provisions delegates wore elected to a constitutional convention which assembled at Wheeling, November 26, 1861, and proceeded to draft a Constitution, which was submitted to the people on the first Thursday of April, 1862. The vote in favor was 18,862, that against it was 514.

The governor appointed by the convention of June, 1861, which declared the State offices vacant, now issued his proclamation convening an extra session of the Legislature, elected and organized under the same authority, and which claimed to be the Legislature of Virginia. This Legislature met on the 6th of May, 1862, and passed an act, giving its consent to the formation of a new State, and forwarded its consent to the Congress of the United States, together with an official copy of the Constitution adopted by the voters, and with the request that the said new State be admitted into the Union.

On the 31st of December, 1862, the following act of Congress was approved by the President:

An act for the admission of the State of "Western Virginia" into the Union, and for other purposes.

Whereas the people inhabiting that portion of Virginia known as West Virginia did, by a convention assembled in the city of Wheeling on the twenty-sixth of November, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, frame for themselves a Constitution, with a view of becoming a separate and independent State; and whereas at a general election held in the counties composing the territory aforesaid on the third day of May last, the said Constitution was approved and adopted by the qualified voters of the proposed State, and whereas the Legislature of Virginia, by an act passed on the thirteenth day of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, did give its consent to the formation of a new State within the jurisdiction of the said State of Virginia, to be known by the name of West Virginia, and to embrace the following named counties, to wit: Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, Taylor, Tyler, Pleasants, Ritchie, Doddridge, Harrison, Wood, Jackson, Wirt, Roane, Calhoun, Gilmer, Barbour, Tucker, Lewis, Braxton, Upshur, Randolph, Mason, Putnam, Kanawha, Clay, Nicholas, Cabell, Wayne, Boone, Logan, Wyoming, Mercer, McDowell, Webster, Pocahontas, Fayette, Raleigh, Greenbrier, Monroe, Pendleton, Hardy, Hampshire, and Morgan; and whereas both the convention and the Legislature aforesaid have requested that the new State should be admitted into the Union, and the Constitution aforesaid being republican in form, Congress doth hereby consent that the said forty-eight counties may be formed into a separate and independent State. Therefore—

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the State of West Virginia be and is hereby declared to be one of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever, and until the next general census, snail be entitled to three members in the House of Representatives of the United States; Provided, always, That this Page 802 act shall not take effect until after the proclamation of the President of the United States hereinafter provided for.

It being represented to Congress that since the convention of the twenty-sixth of November, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, that framed and proposed the Constitution for the said State of West Virginia, the people thereof have expressed a wish to change the seventh section of the eleventh article of said Constitution by striking out the same and inserting the following in its place, viz.: "The children of slaves born within the limits of this State after the fourth day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be free; and that all slaves within the said State who shall, at the time aforesaid, be under the age of ten years, shall be free when they arrive at the age of twenty-one years; and all slaves over ten and under twenty-one years, shall be free when they arrive at the age of twenty-five years; and no slave shall be permitted to come into the State for permanent residence therein:" Therefore,

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That whenever the people of West Virginia shall, through their said convention, and by a vote to be taken at an election to be held within the limits of the said State, at such time as the convention may provide, make and ratify the change aforesaid, and properly certify the same under the hand of the President of the Convention, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to issue his proclamation statin? the fact, and thereupon this act shall take effect and dc in force from and after sixty days from the date of said proclamation.

Approved, December 31,1862.

These conditions were subsequently complied with by the citizens, and the President of the United States issued his proclamation accordingly:

The following is a provision of the Constitution of the United States:

New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State, nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of the Congress.

The following is the population of the counties embraced in this new State according to the census of I860: Counties. Hancock. Brooke. Ohio Marshall. Wetzel. Wood Jackson Mason Cabel Wayne. Logan Boone Kanawha. Roane Wirt Ritchie Doddridge, Tyler Harrison Marion Monongalia. Preston Taylor Barbour

The officers of Western Virginia, at the close of the year, were Francis H. Pierpont, governor; Daniel Paisley, lieutenant-governor; Lucian A. Hugans, secretary; Campbell Tarr, treasurer. On the 1st of November, 1862, these counties had furnished to the Federal army sixteen regiments of infantry, three regiments of cavalry, and one of artillery, or newly 20,000 men.


Source: The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year, 1861-1865, vols. 1-5. New York: Appleton & Co., 1868.