GRANT WINS IN THE WEST, AND FARRAGUT AT NEW ORLEANS.
It was on Feb. 2, 1862, that the first great move was made af-ter
Bull Run. This broke the line of the foe at the West and gave the
Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er, a-bove Vicks-burg, in-to the hands of the North.
Com. Foote, with four gun-boats, and Gen. Grant with his troops,
moved a-gainst Fort Hen-ry on the Ten-nes-see Riv-er, and on Feb.
2d, made it give up. A week went by and on the Cum-ber-land Riv-er,
which there runs near the Ten-nes-see Riv-er, an-oth-er fort of the
foe, Don-el-son, twelve miles from Fort Hen-ry, was tak-en by the same
men. There was a stiff fight at Fort Don-el-son and 2,300 of Un-ion
sol-diers fell. At last that fort was tak-en and 15,000 pris-on-ers
with it. All the troops of the foe then had to leave the State of
Ken-tuc-ky. All the friends of the Un-ion cause were full of joy.
[Illustration: THE ATTACK ON FORT DONELSON.]
Just in the midst of the great good news from the West came a thing
most sad to the hearts of the Pres-i-dent’s fam-i-ly. One dear boy fell
ill. It was Wil-lie Lin-coln.
While full of the weight of cares for his land, there came nights and
days when it fell to Lin-coln’s lot to have to watch the slow steps of
death. “It is the hard-est tri-al of my life,” said the sad fa-ther.
At last the dear child was gone. One said to the Pres-i-dent, “A vast
num-ber pray for you to-day.”
Mr. Lin-coln said “I am glad of that. I want them to pray for me. I
need their pray-ers; and I will try to go to God with my sor-row. I
wish I had a child-like faith. I trust God will give it to me. My
moth-er had it. She died man-y years a-go. I re-mem-ber her pray-ers;
they have al-ways fol-lowed me. They have clung to me through life.”
A new style of boat, a small queer craft, was brought forth by the
war. She did a great work in Hamp-ton Roads when ships of wood of the
North, as they lay at an-chor there, had gone down, when shot at and
“rammed” by a new sort of foe.
The Se-cret-a-ry of the Na-vy at that time was Mr. Welles. He heard
that the foe were to raise the hull of the “Mer-ri-mac,” a fine craft
which the foe had hurt and sunk at Nor-folk. They would raise the ship,
cov-er it with i-ron, and thus make a ves-sel which would be of far
more use in war than an-y thing then built.
The As-sist-ant-Sec’y of the Na-vy, Mr. Gus-ta-vus V. Fox, went to talk
with the Pres-i-dent. Lin-coln spoke to him a-bout the new craft and
said:
“We must not let the foe get a-head of us in such an im-por-tant thing
as pla-ting ves-sels with i-ron.”
This thought sank deep in-to the mind of Mr. Fox, and plans were soon
set on foot to see what could be done to get some “i-ron-clads.” Capt.
Er-ics-son made a mod-el of a craft ne’er be-fore seen. It had a hull
un-der wa-ter, and an i-ron-clad tur-ret which could be turned.
The Pres-i-dent was glad of Er-ics-son’s work, took the plans, and
eight months lat-er the worth of the boat made from them was seen in
the great fight be-tween the Mer-ri-mac and the Mon-i-tor at Hamp-ton
Roads. The “Mer-ri-mac” thought she would have full swing and crush
all the ships of the Un-ion. She did some sad work both in the loss of
ships and men, and she would have made an end of all, had there not,
at mid-night, come up-on the scene, straight down from New York, John
Er-ics-son’s lit-tle i-ron ves-sel, the “Mon-i-tor.” From that time
i-ron ships, in place of those made of wood, were made for war use.
In the West, Grant, when he got through with Don-el-son, went up the
Ten-nes-see to take Cor-inth in North Mis-sis-sip-pi. At that place
man-y rail-roads met. Fresh troops had been sent from the East, and
as Grant moved on with them he left some at points where boats could
land. He, him-self, came to a halt on the west bank of the stream, at
Shi-loh, with 30,000 to 40,000 men. This was a good place for him, for
from here he could keep watch on the rail-road that went through the
South and thus vex the foe then in great force at Cor-inth.
The foe had, at its head, Gen. A. S. John-ston and it was his wish to
crush Grant ere Bu-ell could send him more troops.
Shi-loh, a small log church, was on a ridge a few miles back from
Pitts-burg Land-ing. The troops that were to be put in front had their
lines drawn up to face the Cor-inth road, for by that route the foe
must come. Gen. Sher-man had charge of the men on that line.
[Illustration: THE CHURCH AT SHILOH.]
It was on A-pril 6th, 1862, that Gen. A. S. John-ston made a fierce
at-tack on the lines at Shi-loh. There was great loss on both sides.
Sher-man was twice shot, while horse af-ter horse fell un-der him, but
he stuck to his work, and kept up the hearts of his men.
The next day the fight went on a-gain and ground was won and lost on
both sides. New troops, which had come in the night to the boys in
blue, gave them much hope and did fine work. At last it was push,
push, the foe back so that they could gain no more ground. This went
on, till, at three o’clock the cry of “Charge!” rang out up-on the air.
With loud cheers, and their guns held in front of them, the Un-ion
troops made a bold brave dash and drove the foe from the field.
[Illustration: THE LAST CHARGE AT SHILOH.]
The loss was great on both sides. When the foe lost their lead-er, Gen.
A. S. John-ston, they lost heart, and be-ing much worn by hours of dire
work, had to give up.
Af-ter Shi-loh, a move was made a-gainst Cor-inth, a-bout 22 miles
off. Word had gone forth that Beau-re-gard had a large force of
South-ern troops with him at that place, but when the Un-ion ar-my came
close, the foe fled from it, and left most of it in flames. When the
Un-ion troops came, it was found that a brave show had been made with
a lot of old guns made of wood, in the place of the i-ron sort which
could do harm.
[Illustration: SOUTHERN TROOPS LEAVING CORINTH.]
The Un-ion cause, by this last step, held the Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er as
far down as Vicks-burg.
Pres-i-dent Lin-coln’s heart was glad at the strong work in the West,
the news of which came to him but a few weeks af-ter he had heard from
the South that Ad-mir-al Far-ra-gut and Gen. But-ler held the cit-y of
New Or-leans.
Far-ra-gut then went up the Mis-sis-sip-pi as far as Vicks-burg and it
was thought then that the whole riv-er would soon be held by Un-ion
for-ces.
The gains by the boys in blue at that time made a stir in the South and
then it was that each man who could bear arms had to take part in the
war.
The men who led the troops of the South did strong work for their
cause. In 1861 there were fights big and small and most of these were
won by the South. In 1862 the war went on and the North won some hard
fights, though at times there were great loss-es and dark days. The
South bore up well, and though crops were poor, and they could not
get goods, still they fought as brave-ly as ev-er, and felt that they
should at last win. In Vir-gin-ia, the foe had some grand men to lead
them, and for a time it seemed as if they must win. They were bound
to-geth-er with strong ties, and heart, head, and hand, each, did its
best.
When Lin-coln came to be Pres-i-dent it was well known that he had a
great dis-like to sla-ver-y. But the war, as he said, time af-ter time,
was “not fought to put down sla-ver-y but to save the Un-ion.” At the
North man-y found fault with Lin-coln be-cause he did not make haste to
set the slaves free. The Pres-i-dent plain-ly said, “If I could save
the Un-ion, though I did not free a slave I would do it. Still, in my
own heart it is my wish, that all men, in all lands, should be free.”
Lin-coln tried hard to keep the bor-der states friend-ly to the Un-ion
cause. One way that would have made them foes would have been to free
the slaves at once.
One day, while sail-ing down the Po-to-mac Riv-er, en route to the
ar-my for a vis-it, the Pres-i-dent wrote out some thoughts on
this theme which had been in his mind for a long time. Then, when
Con-gress had made an end of its work, af-ter hav-ing passed an act
“tak-ing a-way the prop-er-ty” of the foe, there was a meet-ing of the
cab-i-net, made up of men who were a help to the Pres-i-dent.
Slaves were “prop-er-ty” and as prop-er-ty was to be seized, slaves,
of course, could be tak-en. They were at that time at work as
team-sters and on forts. Why, then, would it not be a good time to give
them their free-dom? With this ques-tion in his mind, the Pres-i-dent
went to his desk and took from it a pa-per which he then read to his
“cab-i-net.” It said; “On and af-ter the first day of Jan-u-a-ry, 1863,
all slaves with-in a-ny state or states where the con-sti-tu-tion-al
au-thor-i-ty of the U-ni-ted States shall not be re-cog-nized,
sub-mit-ted to, and main-tained, shall thence-for-ward and for-ev-er be
free.”
The Pres-i-dent told those to whom he had read his “draft” that he had
not called them to ask their ad-vice but to place the mat-ter be-fore
them.
The wise Se-cret-a-ry Sew-ard said that though he was in fa-vor of
such a draft, he thought the time was not ripe for it. He thought it
would be best to wait un-til the troops had won more fights. It was
then de-cid-ed that at least some months should go by ere this “draft”
should be made known.