THE RAID UPON GRENADA. 199 fresh hope, the steadfast be nerved to herois energy, the rapacious extortioner learn liberality, the selfish trimmer abandon his neutrality, and the vile traitor be cowed into the inaction of despair. "We address you in the true language of firm confidence in the final triumph of our cause, con The Policy of Laying of supply, but for the laying Government or its commanders, until the long cealing nothing of our perils, exaggerating nothing of our hopes. Our powerful and haughty foes propose not only to coerce us into submission, but to despoil us of our whole property, and subject us to every species of ignominy. Base is he who would not continue to contend for our rights even when all shall be lost but honor. The capitalist must be liberal of his means, the speculator forego his gain, the straggler hasten to his regiment, every ablebodied man hold himself in readiness for military service; our women, the glory of our race, tend the loom and even follow the plow; our boys guard the homes their fathers are defending on the frontier, and Western skill and valor will prepare a San Jacinto defeat for every invading army that pollutes the soil of this department. Unsurpassed in courage, intelligence and energy, you have only to arise in your might and the enemy will be speedily driven back. Be true to yourselves, your past history, to your hopes of the future, and a baffled foe will glad-ism that defied the reserved rights of individly seek the peace which we war to obtain. "The enemy may dismiss all hopes that the Western section of the Confederacy will seek any destiny separate from that of our sisters east of the Mississippi. Attached to the Confederacy by community of race, institutions and interests, baptised in the blood we and they have poured out together, we desire no new political connection. Let our eastern confederates do their duty; these States and our Indian allies will do their's, and when our joint efforts shall have secured our common safety, the remembrance of the danger from a temporary cessation of intercourse will only strengthen the ties which bind us together. In the darkest hours of our history, the protection extended to us by Almighty God has been so manifest, as even to be acknowledged by candid foes. Their victories have been to them as fruit turning to ashes on their lips; our defeats have been chastenings to improve u3, strengthen us and arouse our energies. On His help and our own right arms we steadfastly rely; counting on aid neither from the policy of neutral nations, nor from the distractions in the midst of our enemies, we look confidently forward to the day when thirteen Confederate States will in peace and safety occupy their rightful position among the great pow. ers of the earth." Sherman, at an early day of the war, advocated the policy of raids for destroying not only rebel communications and avenues The Raid upon Grenada. uals and States. Vicksburg's fall was preceded hence all the rich property was given to the flames. A co-operative column of cavalry, under Colonel Winslow, from Vicksburg. rode into Grenada that evening, when Wiuslow, being the ranking officer, tried to save the rolling stock, but it was too late-the work of destruction was too far progressed to be stayed. It is estimated that fully three millions of dollars worth of property was thus sacrificed. Returning north along the railway to Memphis, much property was secured or rendered useless. At Panola the two columns separated-Winslow passing on to Memphis, and Phillips' regiments to their camps along the Memphis and Charleston railway. McPherson's March to Canton. Sherman, after the second reduction of Jackson in July operated during August and September in the Black river and Yazoo regions, driving out the enemy, destroying bridges, depots, etc., visiting and stripping plantations with a rigid hand, and releasing much cotton to find its way into Vicksburg and a northern market. McPherson, left in command at Vicksburg after Sherman's detachment to Chattanooga, raided up the Big Black, toward Canton. Leaving his headquarters' post, October 14th, with the divisions of Logan and Tuttle, he advanced rapidly up the river, opposed by a considerable force, composed of the brigades of Wirt Adams (cavalry), Whitman, Cosby and Logan (infantry). To these, other commands were rapidly added, coming by railway from above and below, until McPherson found it feasible to beat a retreat without having reached Canton. He returned to Vicksburg October 21st, by way of C.inton. This expedition was less a raid than a reconnoissance and a feint to call off troops likely to annoy Sherman in his then march from Memphis to Chattanooga, and served to hold Loring's division at Canton and Jackson. Sherman's march along the Memphis nd Charleston railway, as already stated, was severely contested by powerful bodies of cavalry, under Chalmers, Lee, Roddy and Richardson, which, however, were thrown off at all points, and finally left behind. United under Forrest, after the defeat of Bragg by Grant, these brigades kept the field in South Forrest's Raid upon Jackson. western Tennessee, striking the Federal outposts and garrisons along the Charleston railway, when opportunity offered. Finally Forrest determined upon an attempt for the re-possession of West Tennessee, where his emissaries were numerous, and whose population was notedly disloyal to the Federal cause. The commands of Chalmers, Lee and Richardson, late in November, demonstrated along the line of the railway from La Grange to Collinsville, while Forrest, with about four thousand well mounted followers, passed northward, Dec. 6-10th, 1863, to Jackson, Tenn., which place he prepared to make his centre of operations. Augmenting his strength from the worst elements of a population noted for its viciousness, he at once commenced his operations for the "restoration" of West Tennessee. Every man of Union proclivities was to be "cleaned out." Columns of the bandits penetrated to the north as far as Fort Henry, plundering stores, dwellings and barns, at will. A reign of lawlessness followed, for a few weeks, which was arrested by Hurlbut's arrangements for the enemy's destruction. Two columns were to move against Jackson-one from Columbus, Ky., six thousand strong, under General A. L. Smith, and the other from Corinth, on the South, comprised of Gen'l Mower's brigade with Mizner's cavalry. A regiment of cavalry was, also, to move out from Memphis to Bolivar, to be ready for co-operation. These several commands started Dec. 20th, but found such execrable roads as absolutely rendered their march impossible. Smith, after floundering along for several days in a condition of disorder which invited attack, returned to Columbus. This, of course, thwarted the general movement; but Forrest, having fears for the future, put his columus on the march, Dec. 25th, for the south. The condition of the roads, and the want of a pontoon with which to cross the Tennessee, compelled him to bear well to the west, and he pursued the return nearly by the same paths which he had used in entering the State. Hurlbut ordered all bridges to be destroyed along Wolf river, over which the rebels must pass, but Forrest was to quick for this attempt to compass his discomfiture Forrest's Raid upon STRAITS OF THE and capture, for he reached the river in the vicinity of Lafayette before the bridge could be broken. It was secured, and Forrest passed over not only his entire command, but a large drove of cattle, horses, mules, etc., and much plunder, and made good his escape to the south. Richardson's cavalry again demonstrated against Collinsville, to cover this passage, which, considering its successful management, reflected no small credit upon the rebel chief in command. Pursuit was made by Grierson's cavalry, as far as Holley Springs, but to little purpose. The daring raider had escaped only to return again, in a few weeks, prepared to repeat his experiment. structed to confer with Banks, in reference to co-operation-instructions which the General had anticipated, for, on the 2d of Sept. he was in New Orleans. On the 4th, the fall from his horse incapacitated him for service, and both the Mobile and Shreveport expeditions were abandoned for the time being. A reconnoitre by Stevenson's brigade proceeded from Vicksburg, late in August, along the railway west as far as the Wachita river, and returned Sept. 2d, to report no enemy on the immediate front and a country full of forage but short of all other supplies-the rebel agents having swept everything away which men could eat. Such, in fact, was the condition of every section overrun by either belligerent; and, as the National army, at the During August Grant perfected plans for a close of the year 1863, was far advanced into movement into Louisiana, against Kirby the seceded States, the bounds for ConfedeSmith, in two columns; one from Natchez, rate sustenance were narrowed to the strip by Harrisonburg, and one from Vicksburg. between the Alleghanies and the sea coast Communicating his project to Halleck, it and Gulf-the most productive but most heaobtained his sauction, and Grant was in-vily populated sections of the South. CHAPTER V RODES AFFAIRS IN THE CONFEDERATE STATES FROM AUGUST FIRST, 1863, TO JANUARY FIRST, 1864. Straits of the Confederates. THE Condition of affairs, Davis' proclaination of July 15th, enforcing social and political, in the the Confederate conscription act, added no Confederacy, as depicted little to the prevalent gloom. Thousands of in a previous chapter [pp. 116-121], experi- men, from all their armies in the field had enced but little change up to the close of the deserted the ranks, weary with the service or year 1863. The pressure of the war grew called home to care for their suffering families. monthly more severe, the popular enthusiasm To such an extent, indeed, had the enemy's cooled correspondingly, the hope of interven- effective strength been thinned by "absenteetion almost died out; the whole horizon of ism," that the peril of disintegration was the future looked sombre indeed. Every imminent, after Lee's return from Gettysburg effort of the rebel Executive and Congress, and the loss of Vicksburg. The late efficient and every endeavor of their agents were di- divisions in the southwest became, during the rected to two ends viz.: first, to the filling up summer, but ragged remnants of brigades. and sustenance of their ranks; and, second, Bragg was strengthened by every possible to the disparagement of the Federal Govern- means, even to the absorption of Johnston's ment and the "Yankees," by which to obtain regiments, whose capture by Grant had dropthe good result of making popular the strug-ped them from the service until their proper gle for separation. exchange. The desperate straits of their "Fellow Citizens: no alternative is left you but victory, or subjugation, slavery and the utter ruin of yourselves, your families and your country. The victory is within your reach, you need but stretch arms induced the rebel leaders to ignore the routine of the cartel, and Bragg received an accession of nearly twenty thousand men who, by all the usages of war, still were Federal prisoners. Too weak to retain his Shelby-forth your hands to grasp it. For this and all that ville line, upon Rosecrans' advance, the Confederate had to abandon important territory in order to await further re-enforcements. Longstreet's detachment from the Army of Virginia was but the choice of evils. If not strengthened Bragg must abandon Georgia and Alabama, as Johnston had abandoned Western Mississippi. The Davis Amnesty To meet the crisis, Davis, on the 1st of Augus', issued a proclamation promising amnesty and pardon to all deserters and absentees, at the same time making a most earnest and fiery appeal to the patriotism and prejudices of the people, This significant document was as follows: To the Soldiers of the Confederate States: "After more than two years of a warfare scarcely equaled in the number, magnitude and fearful carnage of its battles-a warfare in which your courage and fortitude have illustrated your country, and attracted not only gratitude at home, but admiration abroad, your enemies continue a struggle in which our final triumph must be inevitable. Unduly elated with their recent successes, they imagine that temporary reverses can quell your spirit or shake your determination; and they are now gathering heavy masses for a general invasion, in the vain hope that by a desperate effort success may at length be reached. "You know too well, my countrymen, what they mean by success. Their malignant rage aims at nothing less than the extermination of yourselves, your wives and children. They seek to destroy what they cannot plunder. They propose as the spoils of victory that your homes shall be partitioned among the wretches whose atrocious cruelties have stamped infamy on their Government. They design to incite servile insurrection and light the fires of incendiarism whenever they can reach your homes, and they debauch the inferior race, hitherto docile and contented, by promising indulgence of the vilest passions as the price of treachery. Conscious of their inability to prevail by legitimate warfare, not daring to make peace lest they should be hurled from their seats of power, the men who now rule in Washington refuse even to confer on the subject of putting an end to outrages which disgrace our age, or listen to a suggestion for conducting the war according to the usages of civilization. is necessary is that those who are called to the field by every motive that can move the human heart, should promptly repair to the post of duty, should stand by their comrades now in front of the fee, and thus so strengthen the armies of the Confederacy as to insure success. The men now absent from their posts, would, if present in the field, suffice to create numerical equality between our forces and that of the invaders-and when with any approach to such equality have we failed to be victorious? "I believe that but few of those absent are actn ated by unwillingness to serve their country; but that many have found it difficult to resist the tempt ation of a visit to their homes and the loved ones from whom they have been so long separated; that others have left for temporary attention to their affairs, with the intention of returning, and then have shrunk from the consequences of their violation of duty; that others again have left their posts from mere recklessness and desire of change, each quieting the upbraidings of his conscience by persuading himself that his individual services could have no influence on the general result. "These and other causes, although far less disgraceful than the desire to avoid danger or to escape from the sacrifices required by patriotism, are nevertheless grievous faults, and place the cause of our beloved country, and of everything we hold dear, in imminent peril. I repeat that the men who now owe duty to their country, who have been called out and have not yet reported for duty, or who have absented themselves from their posts, are sufficient in number to secure us victory in the struggle now impending. "I call on you, then, my countrymen, to hasten to your camps, in obedience to the dictates of honor and of duty, and summon those who have absented themselves without leave who have remained absent beyond the period allowed by their furloughs, to repair without delay to their respective commands; and I do hereby declare that I grant a general pardon and amnesty to all officers and men within the Confederacy now absent without leave who shall, with the least possible delay, return to their proper posts of duty, but no excuse will be received for any delay beyond twenty days after the first publication of this proclamation in the State in which the absentee may be at the date of the publication. This amnesty and pardon shall extend to all who have been accused or who have been convicted and are undergoing sentence for absence without leave or THE NORTH CAROLINA PROTESTANTS. 203 desertion, excepting only those who have been | Government, finally found twice convicted of desertion. "Finally, I conjure my countrywomen-the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the Confederacy to use their all powerful influence in aid of this call, to add one crowning sacrifice to those which their patriotism has so freely and constantly afforded on their country's altar, and to take care that none who owe service in the field shall be sheltered at home from the disgrace of having deserted their duty to their families, to their country, and to their God." A desperate case only could have called forth such a proclamation. Yet, it only evidenced what it was impossible to ignore or to suppress--the discontent surging beneath the outward surface of affairs, of which the Bread Riots, the desertions, the refusal to take Confederate money and to pay taxes, were but lesser symptoms. Could the veil have been lifted, for the world to behold life and thought in the South as they were, in the fall of 1863, the Potentates of Europe must have withdrawn their concession of belligerent rights to the revolutionary spiritthe Queen's ministers would have found ready means to suppress the career of corsairs and blockade runners which British capital and British muscles kept afloat-the Emperor of France would have failed to give the "privateer" Alabama the right of repair in his dockyards, and the "Cotton Loan," then in the tide of high favor, must have exploded as a second South Sea Bubble. The North Carolina The North Carolina voice in a series of articles The particular causes of complaint, as set forth by the Standard, in its editorial columns, were thus impressively stated: "Seizures of persons and property have become as common as they are in France and Russia. Personal property has been made dependent on the mere will of army officers appointed by the Presi dent. Hundreds have been arrested for opinion's sake, immured in dungeons, denied trials before the civil tribunals, and released only when the military In North Carolina a por-power chose to do it. Our Courts, when they have tentous cloud was gather-interposed to protect these unfortunates and to uphold the law, have been disregarded in many instances, and their integrity reflected on in gross terms by the War Department at Richmond. The Confederate currency, which is the life blood of the system and the emanation of plighted public faith, has been to some extent repudiated as a matter of convenience; and a portion of it in one instance has been refused by a Cabinet officer, on the same ground, in open violation of a law of Congress. Our Protestants. ing. On the floors of its legislative halls and Council Chamber the peace-men-original anti-secessionists--began to stir in earnest. An issue existed between Governor Vance and the Confederate authorities which, in itself, proved how miserably fallacious was the doctrine of States' rights, when the time of trial came. Over all State authority Davis and his appointed agents rode with a ruthless insolence; an oppression was upon all classes which the people had never conceived possible under the forms of a Republic. Hence, the natural conclusion that the government of Davis was a tyranny whose powers were so centralized as to be irresponsible. The desire for peace and a restoration of relations with the National placed in the van of every battle, and in the rear of almost every retreat; and when they have fought with an ardor and steadiness which would have reflected credit upon the Old Guard of Bonaparte itself, just praise has been denied them by journals supposed to speak for the Administration, and their fathers and brothers at home, who are conservatives, * See Appendix, page 530. patient, uncomplaining, heroic soldiers, have been |