BORDER STATES AND FOREIGN RELATIONS.
GOVERNORS OF CERTAIN STATES REFUSE TROOPS--THE GOVERNOR OF MISSOURI
DISLOYAL--EVENTS IN ST. LOUIS--LOYALTY OF GERMANS--BATTLE AT
CARTHAGE--THE STRUGGLE FOR KENTUCKY, MARYLAND AND TENNESSEE--ACTIONS
IN WEST VIRGINIA--BATTLE OF RICH MOUNTAIN--BATTLE OF BIG
BETHEL--HARPER'S FERRY.
The disposition of the border slave States was one of the most
difficult problems with which the Government had to deal. When the
President issued his call for seventy-five thousand men, the Governors
of Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as those of North
Carolina and Virginia, returned positive refusals. The Governor of
Missouri answered: "It is illegal, unconstitutional, revolutionary,
inhuman, diabolical, and cannot {37} be complied with." The Governor
of Kentucky said: "Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked
purpose of subduing her sister Southern States." The Governor of
Tennessee: "Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion, but
fifty thousand, if necessary, for the defence of our rights and those
of our brethren." The Governor of North Carolina: "I can be no party
to this wicked violation of the laws of the country and to this war
upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North
Carolina." The Governor of Virginia: "The militia of Virginia will not
be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose
as they have in view." Every one of these governors was a
secessionist, with a strong and aggressive party at his back; and yet
in each of these States the secessionists were in a minority. It was a
serious matter to increase the hostility that beset the National arms
on what in another war would have been called neutral ground, and it
was also a serious matter to leave the Union element in the
northernmost slave States without a powerful support and protection.
The problem was worked out differently in each of the States.
[Illustration: A BATTERY ON DRILL.]
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING LOYAL AND SECEDING STATES.]
At the winter session of the Missouri Legislature an act had been
passed that placed the city of St. Louis under the control of police
commissioners to be appointed by the Governor, Claiborne F. Jackson.
Four of his appointees were secessionists, and three of these were
leaders of bodies of "minutemen," half-secret armed organizations. The
mayor of the city, who {38} was also one of the commissioners, was
known as a "conditional Union man." Other acts showed plainly the bent
of the Legislature. One made it treason to speak against the authority
of the Governor, and gave him enlarged powers, while another
appropriated three million dollars for military purposes, taking the
entire school fund for the year, and the accumulations that were to
have paid the July interest on the public debt.
[Illustration: RECRUITS TO THE FRONT.]
A State convention called to consider the question of secession met in
February, and proved to be overwhelmingly in favor of Missouri's
remaining in the Union, though it also expressed a general sympathy
with slavery, assumed that the South had wrongs, deprecated the
employment of military force on either side, and repeated the
suggestion that had been made many times in other quarters for a
national convention to amend the Constitution so as to satisfy
everybody. The State convention made its report in March, and
adjourned till December.
This proceeding appeared to be a great disappointment to Governor
Jackson; but he failed to take from it any hint to give up his purpose
of getting the State out of the Union. On the contrary, he proceeded
to try what he could do with the powers at his command. He called an
extra session of the Legislature, to convene May 2d, for the purpose
of "adopting measures to place the State in a proper attitude of
defence," and he called out the militia on the 3d of May, to go into
encampment for six days. There was a large store of arms (more than
twenty thousand stand) in the St. Louis arsenal; but while he was
devising a method and a pretext for seizing them, the greater part of
them were suddenly removed, by order from Washington, to Springfield,
Illinois. The captain that had them in charge took them on a steamer
to Alton, and there called the citizens together by ringing a
fire-alarm, told them what he had, and asked their assistance in
transferring the cargo to a train for Springfield, as he expected
pursuit by a force of secessionists. The many hands that make light
work were not wanting, and the train very soon rolled away with its
precious freight. The Governor applied to the Confederate Government
for assistance, and a quantity of arms and ammunition, including
several field-guns, was sent to him in boxes marked "marble." He also
ordered a general of the State militia to establish a camp of
instruction near the city, and gathered there such volunteer companies
as were organized and armed.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN NATHANIEL LYON. (Afterwards
Brigadier-General.)]
[Illustration: A VILLAGE COMPANY ON PARADE.]
General Scott had anticipated all this by sending reinforcements to
the little company that held the arsenal, and with them Capt.
Nathaniel Lyon, of the regular army, a man that lacked no element of
skill, courage, or patriotism necessary for the crisis. The force was
also increased by several regiments of loyal home guards, organized
mainly by the exertions of Francis P. Blair, Jr., and mustered into
the service of the United States. When the character and purpose of
the force that was being concentrated by Jackson became sufficiently
evident--from the fact that the streets in the camp were named for
prominent Confederate leaders, and other indications--Lyon determined
upon prompt and decisive action. This was the more important since the
United States arsenal at Liberty had been robbed, and secession troops
were being drilled at St. Joseph. With a battalion of regulars and six
regiments of the home guard, he marched out in the afternoon of May
10th, surrounded the camp, and trained six pieces of artillery on it,
and then demanded an immediate surrender, with no terms but a promise
of proper treatment as prisoners of war. The astonished commander, a
recreant West Pointer, surrendered promptly; and he and his brigade
were disarmed {39} and taken into the city. All the "marble" that had
come up from Baton Rouge and been hauled out to the camp only two days
before was captured and removed to the arsenal, becoming once more the
property of the United States.
The outward march had attracted attention, crowds had gathered along
the route, and when Lyon's command were returning with their prisoners
they had to pass through a throng of people, among whom were not a few
that were striving to create a riot. The outbreak came at length;
stones were thrown at the troops and pistol-shots fired into the
ranks, when one regiment levelled their muskets and poured a volley or
two into the crowd. Three or four soldiers and about twenty citizens
were killed in this beginning of the conflict at the West. William T.
Sherman (the now famous general), walking out with his little son that
afternoon, found himself for the first time under fire, and lay down
in a gully while the bullets cut the twigs of the trees above him.
[Illustration: THE BATTLE AT PHILIPPI, JUNE 3, 1861.]
[Illustration: GENERAL B. F. KELLEY.]
Two days later, Gen. William S. Harney arrived in St. Louis and
assumed command of the United States forces. He was a veteran of long
experience; but ex-Governor Sterling Price, commanding the State
forces, entrapped him into a truce that tied his hands, while it left
Jackson and Price practically at liberty to pursue their plans for
secession. Thereupon the Government removed him, repudiated the truce,
and gave the command to Lyon, now made a brigadier-general. After an
interview with Lyon in St. Louis (June 11), in which they found it
impossible to deceive or swerve him, Price and Jackson went to the
capital, Jefferson City, burning railway bridges behind them, and the
Governor immediately issued a proclamation declaring that the State
had been invaded by United States forces, and calling out fifty
thousand of the militia to repel the invasion. Its closing passage is
a fair specimen of many proclamations and appeals that were issued
that spring and summer: "Your first allegiance is due to your own
State, and you are under no obligation whatever to obey the
unconstitutional edicts of the military despotism which has introduced
itself at Washington, nor submit to the infamous and degrading sway of
its wicked minions in this State. No brave-hearted Missourian will
obey the one or submit to the other. Rise, then, and drive out
ignominiously the invaders who have dared to desecrate the soil which
your labors have made fruitful and which is consecrated by your
homes."
{40} [Illustration: A BOMB PROOF.]
The very next day Lyon had an expedition in motion, which reached
Jefferson City on the 15th, took possession of the place, and raised
the National flag over the Capitol. At his approach the Governor fled,
carrying with him the great seal of the State. Learning that he was
with Price, gathering a force at Booneville, fifty miles farther up
Missouri {41} River, Lyon at once reëmbarked the greater part of his
command, arrived at Booneville on the morning of the 17th, fought and
routed the force there, and captured their guns and supplies. The
Governor was now a mere fugitive; and the State convention, assembling
again in July, declared the State offices vacant, nullified the
secession work of the Legislature, and made Hamilton R. Gamble, a
Union man, provisional Governor. Among the citizens whose prompt
personal efforts were conspicuous on the Union side were John M.
Schofield and Francis P. Blair, Jr. (afterward Generals), B. Gratz
Brown (afterward candidate for Vice-President), Rev. Galusha Anderson
(afterward President of Chicago University), William McPherson, and
Clinton B. Fisk (afterward founder of Fisk University at Nashville).
The puzzling part of the difficulty in Missouri was now over, for the
contest was well defined. Most of the people in the northern part of
the State, and most of the population of St. Louis (especially the
Germans), were loyal to the National Government; but the secessionists
were strong in its southern part, where Price succeeded in organizing
a considerable force, which was joined by men from Arkansas and Texas,
under Gens. Ben. McCulloch and Gideon J. Pillow. Gen. Franz Sigel was
sent against them, and at Carthage (July 5) with twelve hundred men
encountered five thousand and inflicted a heavy loss upon them, though
he was obliged to retreat. His soldierly qualities in this and other
actions gave him one of the sudden reputations that were made in the
first year of the war, but obscured by the greater events that
followed. His hilarious popularity was expressed in the common
greeting: "You fights mit Sigel? Den you trinks mit me!" Lyon,
marching from Springfield, Mo., defeated McCulloch at Dug Spring, and
a week later (August 10) attacked him again at Wilson's Creek, though
McCulloch had been heavily reinforced. The national troops,
outnumbered three to one, were defeated; and Lyon, who had been twice
wounded early in the action, was shot dead while leading a regiment in
a desperate charge. Major S. D. Sturgis conducted the retreat, and
this ended the campaign. It was found that General Lyon, who was a
bachelor, had bequeathed all he possessed (about thirty thousand
dollars) to the United States Government, to be used for war purposes.
[Illustration: CARING FOR THE DEAD AND WOUNDED.]
{42} [Illustration: BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK, NEAR SPRINGFIELD, MO.,
AUGUST 10, 1861.]
In the days when personal leadership was more than it can ever be
again, while South Carolina was listening to the teachings of John C.
Calhoun, which led her to try the experiment of secession, Kentucky
was following Henry Clay, who, though a slaveholder, was a strong
Unionist. The practical effect was seen when the crisis came, after he
had been in his grave nine years. Governor Beriah Magoffin convened
the Legislature in January, 1861, and asked it to organize the
militia, buy muskets, and put the State in a condition of armed
neutrality; all of which it refused to do. After the fall of Fort
Sumter he called the Legislature together again, evidently hoping that
the popular excitement would bring them over to his scheme. But the
utmost that could be accomplished was the passage of a resolution by
the lower house (May 16) declaring that Kentucky should occupy "a
position of strict neutrality," and approving his refusal to furnish
troops for the national army. Thereupon he issued a proclamation (May
20) in which he "notified and warned all other States, separate or
united, especially the United and Confederate States, that I solemnly
forbid any movement upon Kentucky soil." But two days later the
Legislature repudiated this interpretation of neutrality, and passed a
series of acts intended to prevent any scheme of secession that might
be formed. It appropriated one million dollars for arms and
ammunition, but placed the disbursement of the money and control of
the arms in the hands of commissioners that were all Union men. It
amended the militia law so as to require the State Guards to take an
oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and finally the
Senate passed a resolution declaring that "Kentucky will not sever
connection with the National Government, nor take up arms with either
belligerent party." Lovell H. Rousseau (afterward a gallant general in
the national service), speaking in his place in the Senate, said: "The
politicians are having their day; the people will yet have theirs. I
have an abiding confidence in the right, and I know that this
secession movement is all wrong. There is not a single substantial
reason for it; our Government had never oppressed us with a feather's
weight." The Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge and other prominent citizens
took a similar stand; and a new Legislature, chosen in August,
presented a Union majority of three to one. As a last resort, Governor
Magoffin addressed a letter to President Lincoln, requesting that
Kentucky's neutrality be respected and the national forces removed
from the State. Mr. Lincoln, in refusing his request, courteously
reminded him that the force consisted exclusively of Kentuckians, and
told him that he had not met any Kentuckian, except himself and the
messengers that brought his letter, who wanted it removed. To
strengthen the first argument, Robert Anderson, of Fort Sumter fame,
who was a citizen of Kentucky, was made a general and given the
command in the State in September. Two months later, a secession
convention met at Russellville, in the southern part of the State,
organized a provisional government, and sent a full delegation to the
Confederate Congress at Richmond, who found no difficulty in being
{43} admitted to seats in that body. Being now firmly supported by the
new Legislature, the National Government began to arrest prominent
Kentuckians who still advocated secession, whereupon others, including
ex-Vice-President John C. Breckinridge, fled southward and entered the
service of the Confederacy. Kentucky as a State was saved to the
Union, but the line of separation was drawn between her citizens, and
she contributed to the ranks of both the great contending armies.
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL BENJAMIN F. BUTLER AND STAFF.]
Like the governor of Kentucky, Gov. Thomas H. Hicks, of Maryland, had
at first protested against the passage of troops, had dreamed of
making the State neutral, and had even gone so far as to suggest to
the Administration that the British Minister at Washington be asked to
mediate between it and the Confederates. But, unlike Governor
Magoffin, he ultimately came out in favor of the Union. The
Legislature would not adopt an ordinance of secession, nor call a
convention for that purpose; but it passed a bill establishing a board
of public safety, giving it extraordinary authority over the military
powers of the State, and appointed as such board six secessionists and
the governor. A tremendous pressure was brought to bear upon the
State. One of her poets, in a ringing rhyme to a popular air, told her
that the despot's heel was on her shore, and predicted that she would
speedily "spurn the Northern scum," while the Vice-President of the
Confederacy felt so sure of her acquisition that in a speech (April
30) he triumphantly announced that she "had resolved, to a man, to
stand by the South." But Reverdy Johnson and other prominent
Marylanders were quite as bold and active for the national cause. A
popular Union Convention was held in Baltimore; General Butler with
his troops restored the broken communications and held the important
centres; and under a suspension of the writ of _habeas corpus_ some of
the more violent secessionists were imprisoned. The release of the
citizens was demanded by Chief-Justice Taney, of the United States
Supreme Court, who declared that the President had no right to suspend
the writ; but his demand was refused. In May the Governor called for
four regiments of volunteers to fill the requisition of the National
Government, but requested that they might be assigned to duty in the
State. So Maryland remained in the Union, though a considerable number
of her citizens entered the ranks of the Confederate army.
In the mountainous regions of western North Carolina and eastern
Tennessee, where few slaves were held, there was a strong Union
element. In other portions of those States there were many
enthusiastic secessionists. But in each State there was a majority
against disunion. North Carolina voted on the question of calling a
convention to consider the subject, and by a small majority decided
for "no convention." Tennessee, on a similar vote, showed a majority
of fifty thousand against calling a convention. After the fall of
Sumter Gov. John W. Ellis, of North Carolina, seized the branch mint
at Charlotte and the arsenal at Fayetteville, and called an extra
session of the Legislature. This Legislature authorized him to tender
the military resources of the State to the Confederate Government, and
called a convention to meet May 20th, which passed an ordinance {44}
of secession by a unanimous vote. The conservative or Union party of
Tennessee issued an address on the 18th of April, in which they
declared their approval of the Governor's refusal to furnish troops
for the national defence, and condemned both secession and coercion,
holding that Tennessee should take an independent attitude. This, with
the excitement of the time, was enough for the Legislature. In secret
session it authorized Gov. Isham G. Harris, who was a strong
secessionist, to enter into a military league with the Confederate
Government, which he immediately did. It also passed an ordinance of
secession, to be submitted to a popular vote on the 8th of June.
Before that day came, the State was in the possession of Confederate
soldiers, and a majority of over fifty thousand was obtained for
secession. East Tennessee had voted heavily against the ordinance; and
a convention held at Greenville, June 17, wherein thirty-one of the
eastern counties were represented, declared, for certain plainly
specified reasons, that it "did not regard the result of the election
as expressive of the will of a majority of the freemen of Tennessee."
Later, the people of those counties asked to be separated peaceably
from the rest of the State and allowed to remain in the Union; but the
Confederate authorities did not recognize the principle of secession
from secession, and the people of that region were subjected to a
bloody and relentless persecution, before which many of them fled from
their homes. The most prominent of the Unionists were Andrew Johnson
and the Rev. William G. Brownlow.
[Illustration: COMMISSARY QUARTERS.]
[Illustration: CULINARY DEPARTMENT.]
That portion of the Old Dominion which lay west of the Alleghany
Mountains held in 1860 but one-twelfth as many slaves in proportion to
its white population as the remainder of the State. And when Virginia
passed her ordinance of secession, all but nine of the fifty-five
votes against it were cast by delegates from the mountainous western
counties. The people of these counties, having little interest in
slavery and its products, and great interests in iron, coal and
lumber, the market for which was in the free States, while their
streams flowed into the Ohio, naturally objected to being dragged into
the Confederacy. Like the people of East Tennessee, they wanted to
secede from secession, and one of their delegates actually proposed it
in the convention. In less than a month (May 13) after the passage of
the ordinance, a Union convention was held at Wheeling, in which
twenty-five of the western counties were represented; and ten days
later, when the election was held, these people voted against
seceding. The State authorities sent recruiting officers over the
mountains, but they had little success. Some forces were gathered,
under the direction of Gen. Robert E. Lee and under the immediate
command of Colonel Porterfield, who began burning the bridges {45} on
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Meanwhile Capt. George B. McClellan
had been made a general and placed in command of Ohio troops. With
four regiments he crossed the Ohio on the 26th and went in pursuit of
the enemy. His movement at first was retarded by the burned bridges;
but these were repaired, large reinforcements were brought over, and
in small but brilliant engagements--at Philippi and at Rich
Mountain--he completely routed the Confederates.
At Philippi the Confederates were completely surprised by Colonels
Kelley and Dumont, and beat so hasty a retreat that the affair
received the local name of the "Philippi races." The victory at Rich
Mountain was the first instance of the capture by either side of a
military position regularly approached and defended. A pass over this
mountain was regarded as so important that all the Confederate troops
that could be spared were sent to defend it, under command of Gen.
Robert S. Garnett with Colonel Pegram to assist him. The position was
so strong that a front attack was avoided, and its speedy capture
resulted from a flank attack skilfully planned and successfully
executed by Gen. W. S. Rosecrans. On the retreat up the Cheat River
Valley General Garnett was killed, and Pegram, with a considerable
number of his men, surrendered to McClellan.
The importance of this affair at Rich Mountain was really slight,
notwithstanding it was successful in securing to the Union army a
footing on this frontier that was not afterward seriously disturbed.
But the significance of the action of July 11, and the campaign which
it terminated, lies in the instant popularity and prominence it gave
to General McClellan. He reported the victory in a Napoleonic
despatch, announcing the annihilation of "two armies, commanded by
educated and experienced soldiers, intrenched in mountain fastnesses
fortified at their leisure;" and concluding, "Our success is complete,
and secession is killed in this country." McClellan's failure to
accomplish more in this campaign has been indicated by military
critics, but at the time nothing obscured the brilliancy of the
victory. The people took his own estimate of it, and "Little Mac," the
young Napoleon, became a popular hero. The Government also took his
view of it; and after the defeat at Bull Run, a few days later, he was
given the command of the Army of the Potomac, and in the autumn
succeeded to the command of the Armies of the United States.
Delegates from the counties west of the Alleghanies met at Wheeling
(June 11), pronounced the acts of the Richmond convention null and
void, declared all the State offices vacant, and reorganized the
Government, with Francis H. Pierpont as governor. A legislature,
consisting of members that had been chosen on the 23d of May, met at
Wheeling on the 1st of July, and on the 9th it elected two United
States senators. The new State of Kanawha was formally declared
created in August. Its constitution was ratified by the people in May,
1862, and in December of that year it was admitted into the Union.
But, meanwhile, its original and appropriate name had been exchanged
for that of West Virginia.
The victory at Rich Mountain, announced in McClellan's triumphant and
resounding words, came in good time to arrest the depression caused by
an unfortunate affair of a few weeks before, at Big Bethel, on June
10th; though the popular clamor for aggressive warfare did not cease,
but was even now driving the army into a premature advance on Manassas
and the battle of Bull Run, for which the preparations were
inadequate.
[Illustration: GENERAL BEN McCULLOCH, C. S. A.]
[Illustration: GENERAL J. B. MAGRUDER, C. S. A.]
[Illustration: GENERAL STERLING PRICE, C. S. A.]
{46} [Illustration: BATTLE OF BIG BETHEL, VIRGINIA, JUNE 10, 1861.]
Big Bethel has been called the first battle of the war, though it was
subsequent to the affair of the "Philippi races," and at a later day
would not have been called a battle at all. But among its few
casualties there were numbered the deaths of Major Theodore Winthrop
and the youthful Lieut. John T. Greble, and the painful impression
caused by these losses converted the affair into a tragic national
calamity. The movement was a conception of Gen. B. F. Butler's, who
commanded at Fortress Monroe. Annoyed by the aggressions of a body of
Confederates, under General Magruder, encamped at Little Bethel, eight
miles north of Newport News, he sent an expedition to capture them. It
consisted of Col. Abram Duryea's Fifth New York Zouaves, with
Lieut.-Col. (afterward General) Gouverneur K. Warren second in command
(the Confederates greatly feared these "red-legged devils," as they
dubbed them), Col. Frederick Townsend's Third New York, Colonel
Bendix's Seventh New York Volunteers, the First and Second New York,
and detachments from other regiments, with two field-pieces worked by
regulars under Lieutenant Greble; Gen. E. W. Pierce in command.
Duryea's Zouaves were sent forward to attack from the rear; but a
dreadful mistake of identity led Bendix's men to fire into Townsend's
regiment, as these commands approached each other, which brought
Duryea back to participate in the supposed engagement in his rear, and
destroyed the chance of surprising the rebel camp. The {47}
Confederates abandoned Little Bethel, and took a strong position at
Big Bethel, where they easily repulsed the attack that was made, and
pursued the retreating Unionists until checked by the Second New York
Regiment.
An important preliminary to the battle of Bull Run was the operations
about Harper's Ferry in June and July, resulting, as they did, in the
release from that point of a strong Confederate reinforcement, which
joined Beauregard at Bull Run at a critical time, and turned the
fortunes of the day against the Union army.
Harper's Ferry, as we have seen, had been occupied by a Confederate
force under Stonewall Jackson, who became subordinate to the superior
rank of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston when that officer arrived on the
scene. On both sides a sentimental importance was given to the
occupation of Harper's Ferry, which was not warranted by its
significance as a military stronghold. It did, indeed, afford a
control of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, so long as the position
could be maintained. But it derived its importance in the public mind
from the fact that it had been chosen by John Brown as the scene of
his projected negro uprising in 1859, and was presumed from that to be
a natural fortress, a sort of Gibraltar, which, once gained, could be
held forever by a small though determined body of men. The Confederate
Government and military staff at Richmond so regarded it, and they
warned General Johnston that he must realize, in defending it, that
its abandonment would be depressing to the cause of the South. General
Patterson, whose army gathered in Pennsylvania was to attack it,
impressed on the War Department the paramount importance of a victory,
and predicted that the first great battle of the war, the results of
which would be decisive in the contest, would be fought at Harper's
Ferry. He begged for the means of success, and offered his life as the
price of a failure on his part. The Washington authorities, though
they did not exact the penalty, took him at his word as to the men and
means required, and furnished him with between eighteen and twenty-two
thousand men (variously estimated), sending him such commanders as
Major-General Sandford, of New York (who generously waived his
superior rank, and accepted a subordinate position), Fitz John Porter,
George Cadwalader, Charles P. Stone, and others. Both sides, then,
prepared for action at Harper's Ferry, as for a mighty struggle over
an important strategic position.
The Confederates were the first to realize that this was an error.
However desirable it might be to hold Harper's Ferry as the key to the
Baltimore and Ohio, and to Maryland, General Johnston quickly
discovered that, while it was secure enough against an attack in
front, across the Potomac, it was an easy capture for a superior force
that should cross the river above or below it, and attack it from the
Virginia side. For its defence, his force of six thousand five hundred
men would not suffice against Patterson's twenty thousand, and he
requested permission to withdraw to Winchester, twenty miles to the
southwest. This suggestion was most unpalatable to the Confederate
authorities, who understood well that the popular interpretation of
the movement would be detrimental to the cause. But the fear that
McClellan would join Patterson from West Virginia, and that the loss
of an army of six thousand five hundred would be even more depressing
than a retreat, they reluctantly consented to Johnston's plan. He
destroyed everything at Harper's Ferry that could be destroyed, on
June 13th and 14th; and when Patterson, after repeated promptings from
Washington, arrived there on the 15th, he found no determined enemy
and no mighty battle awaiting him, but only the barren victory of an
unopposed occupation of a ruined and deserted camp.
[Illustration: A RAILROAD BATTERY.]