perceived by the Confederate artillerymen-such was the fact-until the leading vessel had already passed the first of the line of batteries; then the guard gave the alarm; a rocket was sent up as a signal of the danger, and a great fire was lighted on the river's bank, near one of the most formidable works, to throw light across the stream and to illumine the Federal vessels. Immediately the artillerymen repaired to their posts, and waited the signal to begin their work. The Hartford, as soon as it was ascertained that she had been seen, opened fire, which was taken up by the other vessels of the fleet; the mortar-boats also commenced to throw shells into the enemy's lines, and the Essex advancing nearer the batteries, opened on them with her heavy guns. For a few minutes no reply was made to this terrific fire, and the Federal shells fell wide, as the exact locality of the batteries was unknown. Then the Confederate guns opened; the Hartford was struck, but being a swift vessel, succeeded, with her consort the Albatross, in running past the batteries. The Richmond and the other vessels were less fortunate; the darkness was so great, that with difficulty they avoided firing into each other, and the smoke which hung round the guns, owing to the humidity of the air, prevented them from being worked with effect. The flashes of the guns from the batteries alone presented marks at which to aim, and often was the command given to cease firing, for fear lest other vessels rather than the enemy's works should feel the effects of the broadsides. No order could be preserved in the fleet, and there was great risk lest the vessels should run foul of each other. Finding the enterprise so much more difficult than was contemplated, the Richmond and the vessels following her turned round: in doing

so the Mississippi ran aground on the right bank of the river, and her commander finding that it was impossible to get her off, resolved to abandon her and blow her up. The greater portion of the crew were landed, and afterwards picked up by the Essex, and the vessel was set on fire. In the meantime the Richmond, Monongahela, and their consorts, had returned to Providence Island, and the Hartford and Albatross had run past the batteries, and were in safety on the opposite side. Many of the vessels had sustained injury, and their crews had suffered in killed and wounded, whilst the casualties in the batteries had been comparatively few, owing to the inaccuracy of the fire from the ships. As the Richmond and her companion lay at anchor under the trees of Providence Island, the Mississippi was perceived approaching in a sheet of flame. Lightened by the departure of the crew, and influenced by the current, she had swung round into the stream, and was now floating stem foremost down the river. Her guns exploded, together with many of the shells which were lying ready for use on her deck, and when the flames reached the magazine she blew up, shaking by the concussion every vessel in the fleet, and sinking almost in the same spot where the Arkansas had perished in the previous year. The enterprise against Port Hudson had proved a failure, and the land force under General Banks, which was advancing from Bâton Rouge to take part in the anticipated siege, withdrew to its former lines.

Much anxiety was felt in the North for the safety of Admiral Farragut, who with the wooden frigate Hartford, and the iron-clad Albatross, was between the two fortresses of Port Hudson and Vicksburg, and in danger of attack from the Queen of the West and the Webb, which had already proved so destructive to the

H

Indianola. He, however, maintained his supremacy on the river, and cruising between the two fortified places, watched the Mississippi and blockaded the mouth of the Red River.

With the failure to turn the position of Vicksburg, and to capture Port Hudson, the third period in the operations to open the Mississippi may be considered to have closed. The next great attempt, although made with the same army, which retained its position at Young's Point, and with the same fleet, was yet formed on a different plan. The first attack on Vicksburg from the river, by a naval force alone, had been defeated; the second, by an army unsupported by ships, had proved a more disastrous failure; the third, where strategy was intended to take the place of an attack by open force, had also been unsuccessful, and the campaign which followed and continued during the early summer months, both in Louisiana and Mississippi, was undertaken on a scale more commensurate with the object in view, and was the precursor of events which belong properly to a later period of the war. The peculiar constitution of the American Western armies especially qualified them for warfare such as that which was waged on the Mississippi. The independent habits of the men fitted them for sharpshooters, and the aptitude (acquired in Western life) of turning their hands to various employments, enabled the soldiers to adapt themselves either to the ordinary requirements of infantry or artillery, or to the engineering works so necessary in campaigning in a wild country, whilst occasionally the ease with which soldiers were converted into sailors on the inland waters, proved the natural intelligence of the men, and their fitness for the many requirements of war.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.

LITTLE influence had the season of the year in causing a cessation of hostilities in the South-Western States; through the winter months, the rise of the rivers encouraged enterprises on the part of the fleet, and in summer the firmness of the ground and the growth of the crops, allowed of more extended operations by the troops. There was no intermission in the strife, and the naval and military forces along the eastern and southern boundaries of the Confederacy, looked in vain for relaxation, which in colder climates is necessitated by winter. But in Tennessee and Virginia, the heavy rains of January, February, and March prevented all attempts at movement on a grand scale. The cavalry and detached corps on either side made raids into the enemy's country, and in Virginia, an engagement of more than ordinary dimensions, fought between the Federal and Confederate cavalry, was the forerunner of the important campaign of the spring.

During the time that the two armies watched each other from either bank of the Rappahannock, Stuart's cavalry, under his lieutenants, made several incursions within the Federal lines. Captain Mosby, commanding a troop of irregular cavalry, had distinguished himself by more than one bold enterprise, and, among

others, the feat of capturing General Stoughton within his own lines, and surrounded by a considerable force, was not the least remarkable. With less than a troop of horsemen, he rode boldly into Fairfax Court-house, surprised and took prisoner in his bed the general in command, beat up the quarters of Colonel Wyndham, commanding the cavalry brigade, who fortunately for himself had gone to Washington, and rode off without the loss of a man, and with a considerable number of captured horses.

To revenge such insults, and to infuse esprit de corps into his cavalry, which under a proper system of discipline was improving and becoming more equal to the better horsemen of Virginia, General Averill, who with General Stoneman had acquired the reputation of a good cavalry officer, made a reconnaissance in force towards Culpepper Court-house, where Fitzhugh Lee was reported to be encamped. With seven cavalry regiments and six guns Averill advanced, and on reaching the banks of the Rappahannock encountered a dismounted detachment of Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry, who behind the shelter of the woods offered a resistance to the passage of the river. A squadron of the 1st Rhode Island regiment gallantly rode into the stream, and ascending the opposite bank drove back the skirmishers. In the meantime Fitzhugh Lee had drawn up his brigade of about 800 men, and barred the road to Culpepper. The Federals formed in line, and, supported by their artillery, kept up the engagement for the greater portion of the day, their front covered with dismounted skirmishers who advanced firing through the woods. Finding, however, that the force opposed to them presented a firm front, and alarmed lest his retreat should be cut off, Averill