THE DRAFT AND RIOT. LXII. 1863. June 17. 925 with a cargo of cotton, because of the fleet investing the CHAP. harbor. The Confederate authorities fitted her out as an iron-clad, somewhat after the manner of the famous Merrimac, and called her the Atlanta. Her prowess excited great expectations, and it was proclaimed by her officers that no iron-clad in the Federal navy could withstand her attacks. Admiral Dupont, hearing of this iron-clad ram, sent the monitors Weehawken and Nahant, under Captain Rodgers, to Warsaw Sound to watch for her, as it was ascertained that in a few days she was coming out to spread havoc along the coast. Rodgers arrived, and sent a little steamer up the Savannah as a scout. Early one morning the scout announced that the Atlanta was coming down the river; all bands on the monitors were piped to quarters. Rodgers steamed down the river to decoy the Atlanta into deep water, where he could more easily maneuver the Weehawken. The ram hastened to pursue, thinking the monitor was trying to escape; when she came within easy range Captain Rodgers slackened his speed, and he himself. sighted one of the Weehawken's 15-inch guns, and the shot smashed the Atlanta's pilot-house to flinders, wounding both the pilots; another 15-inch shot struck her half way from her gunwale, crushing her iron and wood work, and making a large hole, killing one man and wounding twelve. Four out of five of the Weehawken's shots took effect; the Atlanta failed to injure her antagonist, and after a contest of fifteen minutes she hauled down her flag. The disappointment was great to the gentlemen and ladies who had been induced to accompany the Atlanta in other boats, with the expectation of seeing her capture the monitors. 3. Congress found it necessary to pass a law authorizing Mar. the President to recruit the army by a draft from ablebodied citizens between the ages of 20 and 45. This he ordered for 300,000 men. In consequence of this order a riot, the most terrible in our history, began in the city of New York, and lasted for three days, but was finally put down by the police, with the aid of armed citizens and July 13. LXII. 1863. CHAP. soldiers from the forts in the harbor, but after, it is esti mated, about two hundred persons were killed, mostly rioters. The latter began by burning the houses where the provost marshals had their offices, the fire often extending much farther. The spirit which animated a certain class of the rioters manifested itself in the burning of the Half Orphan Asylum for colored children, and other fiendish outrages were perpetrated upon the colored population. Afterward great numbers of the rioters were arrested, tried and sentenced to years of imprisonment. The riot would have been subdued sooner, had not the National Guardcity militia-been absent at the call of the President to aid in repelling Lee and his army from Pennsylvania. The depression and disquietude in the Confederacy were very great after the reverses from July 1st to 9th. Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation ordering into the field all white men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. These were to serve three years, and if they refused to report themselves they were to be treated as deserters from the Confederate army, that is, to suffer the penalty of being shot, according to military law. The Confederate financial prospects were becoming worse and worse, and these reverses had crushed every hope of recognition by foreign powers, and even the expectation of mediation faded away. The laboring classes of England, as far as they understood the matter, sympathized with the free States in their struggle with the slave States. The intelligent portion of the French people were still more pronounced. The Protestant pastors of France in an address (dated Paris, March 12th, 1863,) to their Protestant brethren in England, because of their want of sympathy with the free States in their struggle, use the following language: "No more revolting spectacle has ever been before the civilized world than a Confederacy, consisting mainly of Protestants, forming itself and demanding independence, in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, with a professed design of maintaining and propagating slavery. The triumph of LXII. such a cause would put back the progress of Christian civ- CHAP. ilization and of humanity a whole century." The Confederate authorities were greatly exasperated because colored men were allowed to enlist in the United States army. The Confederates were in the habit of giving no quarter to these soldiers, and the atrocities practiced upon those of them who happened to be captured in battle roused President Lincoln to issue a proclamation announcing that for every captured colored soldier sold into slavery there should be put one Confederate prisoner of war to labor on the public works, there to remain until the colored soldier was free and treated as a prisoner of war. This proclamation ended that species of outrage. 1863. LXIII. 1863. CHAPTER LXIII. LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION- -CONTINUED. The March to Chattanooga.-The Battle Chickamauga.-Burnside; CHAP. FROM the battle of Murfreesboro, at the first of the year, till June 25th, Rosecrans remained in his camp recruiting, especially his cavalry. Meanwhile, General Bragg retired to the south bank of Duck river-a deep, narrow streamwhose fords he fortified with the greatest care, and waited for Rosecrans to come and attack him in his well-chosen position. The latter advanced not in the way marked out by his adversary, but by a series of skillfully devised flanking movements compelled Bragg to abandon all his well-laid plans, and to escape being taken at great disadvantage in the rear. He fell back into Alabama and continued his retreat across the Cumberland Mountains to Chattanooga, there he made a stand, having been largely reinforced from Lee's army by Longstreet's division and from Johnston's Mississippi force, and paroled prisoners from Vicksburg who had not been exchanged. He fortified that famous railroad center, and at various points on the Tennessee river threw up defensive works. Rosecrans was much retarded in his pursuit by the excessive rains, the swollen CHATTANOOGA-THE BATTLE. LXIII. 1863. 929 streams and the want of bridges, which had been carefully CHAP. destroyed by the retiring enemy. Chattanooga is on the Tennessee river at the mouth of a valley formed by a creek of the same name, between Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Lookout Mountain rises 2,400 feet above the sea; the base is wooded, but the sides, for the most part, are of abrupt rocks, which in places are perpendicular. 20. Sept. 19. On Rosecrans's approach Bragg evacuated Chattanooga, which the former occupied, himself, and also a portion of Aug. Lookout Mountain by Crittenden's division, and the valley of the Chickamauga by General Thomas's corps. Bragg 'advanced his forces over Chickamauga Creek to get between. Chattanooga and Rosecrans's main army. This movement brought on an engagement. About 11 A.M. the Confederates attacked the Union left flank with their whole strength, and forced it back after an obstinate resistance. The Federals being reinforced in turn took the offensive, and by 4 P. M. recovered nearly all the ground lost. The Confederates left their dead on the field and all their badly wounded. Meanwhile, Generals Bishop Polk and Hill assaulted the Union center, which wavered for a short time but recovered and held the enemy in check; then the assault was made again with a stronger force, and the center was compelled to give way. Sheridan's division came up, and presently others, and after a spirited charge at sunset regained the entire ground. After dark the enemy made a desperate attempt on the center, but were received 80 vigorously that they abandoned their position. This ended the first day's battle. 20. The Confederates renewed the conflict the next day by Sept. again attacking the Union left. The Federals held their ground for a time, and then fell back in order, and being reinforced, checked the enemy. Two hours after they threw a tremendous force upon the Union center, where General Thomas commanded. During the night his men extemporized a barrier of logs and fence rails, from behind which their musketry told severely on the enemy, while the |