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CHAPTER XXIII.

THE TURNING OF THE TIDE.

The Battle of Fredericksburg-Rise of the Peace Party-Factions in Congress-The Battle of Chancellorsville-A Conscription Ordered and Martial Law Declared-Colored Troops Enlisted-Great Financial Measures Afoot-Vallandigham's Expulsion and Return-Growth of the Anti-War Sentiment-Fall of Vicksburg and Battle of Gettysburg-Popular Rejoicings-The President's Proclamation of Thanksgiving-Draft Riots in New York-Lincoln's Address on the Field of Gettysburg-Grant and Sherman in the West.

ENERAL AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE succeeded

GE

McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac. General Burnside was a graduate of the United States Military Academy, but had been, like his predecessor, engaged in other pursuits than that of the military service, before the beginning of the war of the Rebellion. He was "every inch a soldier" in appearance, of fine figure and address, amiable, loyal, and patriotic. He undertook the command of the army with many misgivings. McClellan's favorite generals, it was probable, would not support him with cordiality, and, although he had proved his ability while handling a corps, as at the battle of Antietam, he took command of the Army of the Potomac with diffidence. Assuring himself, as far as he was able, of the co-operation of his comrades in arms, he assumed command, after much persuasion, on the 9th of November, just at the beginning of winter.

At the outset, there was a disagreement between Burnside, Halleck, and Lincoln as to the best line of attack upon the Rebel forces. Burnside's plan was to make a sudden and aggressive movement towards Richmond by the way of Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock. Halleck preferred the line reaching through Gordonsville, farther to the west. Lincoln was asked to decide between the two. Inclined as he was to defer to the judgment of the general who was to conduct the movement, he favored Burnside's plan. Accordingly, he went over the situation in council with Halleck, and then wrote to Burnside that Halleck approved the Fredericksburg route, provided Burnside should move with rapidity. Otherwise, he was sure that that route would not be the best. Burnside's army was directed towards Fredericksburg, but, owing to a delay in furnishing him with the pontoons required for crossing the river, Lee was able to occupy and fortify the heights above the city, and before Burnside was ready to put in his pontoon bridges, he was confronted with Lee's concentrated army. Burnside arrived at Falmouth, on the northern side of the Rappahannock, November 19th; his pontoons did not arrive until the 25th. The attack was made, in the face of difficulties almost hopeless to overcome, on the 15th of December. Lee occupied the heights above Fredericksburg, his artillery commanding every approach from the opposite side of the river. The assault was made, however, and, as many despondent military critics had predicted, the Army of the Potomac was repulsed with frightful slaughter. It was a great disaster. Wash

ington was filled with the wounded who were brought up from the base at Acquia Creek, on the Potomac, and the hospitals, that now occupied churches and other public buildings at the capital, were crowded with the wounded and the dying. Congress was in session, and the politicians of both sides were alert to take advantage of this military reverse to press their several policies upon the attention of the President, Congress, and the country.

The year closed in gloom. The Rebels had succeeded in scaring McClellan from Richmond, although he had been within a few miles of the Rebel capital at one time. They had inflicted a severe blow upon the Army of the Potomac under Burnside; previous to which they had, so to speak, whipped Pope in detail while he was left to struggle against a superior force, his own army being unsupported and brought up in sections to the slaughter. Stonewall Jackson had swept the valley of the Shenandoah, eluding McDowell and Frémont and driving Banks across the Potomac. Nor was the military situation in the West much more hopeful. Buell had been forced back in Kentucky, and the Rebel General Bragg had entered that State and a provisional Rebel government had been organized at Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, an event that was designed to encourage the Rebel element in the border States and the antiUnion element in the North, heretofore somewhat kept under. The cities of Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, were menaced, and it was found needful to fortify them. At the end of December the combined Union forces under Generals Sherman

and McClernand made a vigorous assault upon the defences of Vicksburg, that city still holding the Mississippi for the Rebels, but were repulsed with much loss. A solitary gleam of light flashed up on the closing of the year, when Rosecrans fought the battle of Stone River, in which the Rebels were defeated with great loss, but were able, under General Bragg, to retreat to the southward.

Meanwhile, the party that hoped for peace on some other terms than those of the overthrow and punishment of the Rebels had been gaining ground. When the military successes of the Union cause were pronounced, these men kept silence. As soon as the tide of war went with the Rebels, the clamor for a cessation of hostilities and an ending of the sacrifice of life in battle grew loud. Lincoln was besieged, on the one hand, with demands for the reinstatement of McClellan and a more vigorous prosecution of the war, and on the other with importunities for an armistice, or truce, during which negotiations for a settlement should be carried on. There was another class who, while calling for more vigorous tactics on the part of the administration, were eager for a change of generals. Among others, General Banks was represented to be the favorite for whom the Army of the Potomac was anxiously waiting. The Peace Democrats, as they were called, grew more and more importunate for some attempt at settlement that should include leaving undisturbed the peculiar institution, slavery.

An interesting correspondence between Lincoln and Fernando Wood, Mayor of New York, took

place toward the end of 1862. This was the same Wood who, when Lincoln was first chosen President, had advocated the erection of New York into a free city and its neutrality as a belligerent. He now informed Lincoln that he was credibly informed that the Southern States would send representatives to Congress and resume their old-time relations, provided a full and general amnesty were proclaimed. In his reply, Lincoln said that he strongly suspected that Mr. Wood's information would prove to be without foundation.

"Nevertheless,” he said, “I thank you for communicating it to me. Understanding the phrase in the paragraph quoted, 'the Southern States would send representatives to the next Congress,' to be substantially the same as that 'the people of the Southern States would cease resistance, and would reinaugurate, submit to, and maintain the national authority, within the limits of such States, under the Constitution of the United States,' I say that in such case the war would cease on the part of the United States, and that if, within a reasonable time, a full and general amnesty were necessary to such an end, it would not be withheld."

Wood had quoted from Lincoln's inaugural address and to this had added many arguments and protestations of the alleged loyal purposes and intentions of the Southern people. Lincoln passed by all these, and, returning to the phrases quoted by Wood from the inaugural, as above, gave these as the only reasonable basis on which any hope of an amnesty could be founded. Lincoln thought, and said,

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