trying to sink them. The shot and shell struck and burst all around us, but only one boat was struck, containing some of the Sixth Connecticut volunteers, killing one and wounding two or three.

The General's boat had got two discharges of grape. Just at this moment Lieutenant-Colonel Rodman said to the General: "Let me land my command and take that battery." The General hesitated at first, and then said: "Go!" Colonel Rodman stood up in the stern of his boat, and gave the command, as the boats were all in line and in good order: "Seventh Connecticut! man your oars and follow me." We had previously detailed fifty men as oarsmen, leaving us about one hundred and seventy-five effective men and officers. At the order we all headed for the shore, and, as the boats struck, every man sprang as if by instinct, and in an instant the men were in line.

We advanced rapidly to the first line of rifleworks; our skirmishers cleared it with a bound, and advanced to the second line. Our main forces moved to the first line-the foe retired, firing. Lieutenant-Colonel Rodman now sent word back for the General to land his whole force, as we could hold the line we occupied. After exchanging a few shots, and the brigade being landed and ready to advance, the enemy began to give way. Lieutenant Jordan, with a detachment of company I, pushed right up into their batteries on our right, and not finding the first gun in working order-it having been disabled by a shot-he pushed forward to what is now called Battery Rodman, in which there was an eight-inch sea-coast howitzer, and turned it on the retreating foe, bursting several shells over their heads before they reached Fort Wagner.

Our forces captured eight single gun batteries and three mortars, and not far from two hundred prisoners.

We bivouacked for the night under easy range of Fort Wagner. About half-past two A.M. General Strong came and called the Lieutenant-Colonel out. He soon returned and said: "Turn out! we have got a job on hand." The men were soon out and into line, but rather slow to time, as they were tired with the work the day before.

five hundred yards from the fort when we started.

We had not gone far before the picket fired, and then we took the double-quick, and with a cheer rushed for the works. Before we reached the outer works, we got a murderous fire from the riflemen behind the works. A few fell-a check in the line. An encouraging word from the officers, and right gallantly we reached the outer works; over them with a will we went, down the opposite side, across the moat-there being about one foot of water in it-right up to the crest of the parapet; and there we lay, anxiously waiting for our support to come up so far as to make it a sure thing for us to rise up and go over with a bound, our men in the mean time busying themselves by picking off the sharpshooters and gunners. We laid so near the top that one had to put his head up and point across the parapet to kill his man.

As near as I can ascertain, we were in this position from ten to twenty minutes, when both of the regiments that were to support us broke and fled, leaving us to take care of ourselves as best we might. As soon as the regiment in front broke and ran, they paid particular attention to our case. They threw hand-grenades over the parapet, and soon sent men into the flank of a bastion, which commanded the front upon which we lay. They had us there to a great disadvantage. The question was whether we should surrender as prisoners, attempt to carry the works, and to be entirely annihilated, (as they greatly outnumbered us,) or take the back track and run the gauntlet for our lives.

Upon consulting the Lieutenant-Colonel, he reluctantly gave the order to retreat. Lieutenant Phillips exclaimed: "For God's sake, don't let us retreat." As if by magic, the order was recalled, although some had started; but the order had to be repeated, and down in and across the moat we went over the works. They had a perfect enfilading fire of small arms for a thousand yards, besides their pieces were giving us grape and canister. They fell on all sides of me, and I alone of four captains was spared; and out of one hundred and ninety-one officers and men that marched out to attack the foe, only eightyeight returned safe to camp; and ever let it be said, to the credit of the Seventh Connecticut volunteers, that not one straggler could be discovered. Fifteen minutes after we got in camp the roll was called, and but one man came in afterward, and he was delayed in assisting a wounded comrade.

have taken the works, and without a doubt we should have done so. But our loss is great. We had eleven officers in our mess. Now we have but four. It is hard, but such is the fate of war.

Our attack on surprise to them.

the tenth July was a fearful They had but few troops on

this island. Had they five thousand infantry here, the natural defences are of such a character that we never could have taken it.

Doc. 148.

EMPLOYMENT OF SLAVES.

GENERAL MERCER'S ORDER.

C. S. ENGINEER'S OFFICE, SAVANNAH, GA., Aug. 1, 1863. T THE Brigadier-General Commanding desires to inform the slaveholders of Georgia that he has received authority from the Secretary of War to impress a number of negroes sufficient to construct such additional fortifications as are necessary for the defence of Savannah.

He desires, if possible, to avoid the necessity of impressment, and therefore urges the owners of slave property to volunteer the services of their negroes. He believes that, while the planters of South-Carolina are sending their slaves by thousands to aid the defence of Charleston, the slaveholders of Georgia will not be backward in contributing in the same patriotic manner to the defence of their own seaport, which has so far resisted successfully all the attacks of the enemy at Fort McAllister and other points.

Remember, citizens of Georgia, that on the successful defence of Savannah depends the security of the interior of your State, where so much of value both to yourselves and to the Confederacy at large is concentrated. It is best to meet the enemy at the threshold, and to hurl back the first wave of invasion. Once the breach is made, all the horrors of war must desolate your now peaceful and quiet homes. Let no man deceive himself. If Savannah falls the fault will be yours, and your own neglect will have brought the sword to your hearthstones.

The Brigadier-General Commanding, therefore, calls on all the slaveholders of Eastern, Southern, and South-Western Georgia, but especially those in the neighborhood of Savannah, to send him immediately one fifth of their able-bodied male slaves, for whom transportation will be furnished and wages paid at the rate of twenty-five dollars per month, the Government to be responsible for the value of such negroes as may be killed by the enemy, or may in any manner fall into his hands. By order of

Brig.-Gen. MERCER, Commanding.

JOHN MCCRADY,

Captain and Chief Engineer, State of Georgia.

GENERAL GRANT'S ORDER.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE, VICKSBURGH, MISS., August 1, 1863. GENERAL ORDERS No. 50.-1. All regularly organized bodies of the enemy having been driven from those parts of Kentucky and Tennessee west of the Tennessee River, and from all of Mississippi west of the Mississippi Central Railroad; and it being to the interest of those districts not to invite the presence of armed bodies of men among them, it is announced that the most rigorous penalties will hereafter be inflicted upon the following

class of prisoners, to wit: All irregular bodies of cavalry not mustered and paid by the confederate authorities; all persons engaged in conscription, or in apprehending deserters, whether regular or irregular; all citizens encouraging or aiding the same; and all persons detected in firing upon unarmed transports.

It is not contemplated that this order shall affect the treatment due to prisoners of war, captured within the districts named, when they are members of legally organized companies, and when their acts are in accordance with the usages of civilized warfare.

2. The citizens of Mississippi, within the limits above described, are called upon to pursue their peaceful avocations, in obedience to the laws of the United States. Whilst doing so in good faith, all United States forces are prohibited from molesting them in any way. It is earnestly recommended that the freedom of negroes be acknowledged, and that, instead of compulsory labor, contracts upon fair terms be entered into between the former master and servants, or between the latter and such other persons as may be willing to give them employment. Such a system as this, honestly followed, will result in substantial advantages to all parties.

All private property will be respected, except when the use of it is necessary for the Government, in which case it must be taken under the direction of a corps commander, and by a proper detail under charge of a commissioned officer, with specific instructions to seize certain property and no other. A staff officer of the Quartermaster or Subsistence Department will in each instance be designated to receipt for such property as may be seized, the property to be paid for at the end of the war, on proof of loyalty, or on proper adjustment of the claim, under such regulations or laws as may hereafter be established. All property seized under this order must be taken up on returns by the officer giving receipts, and disposed of in accordance with existing regulations.

3. Persons having cotton or other produce not required by the army, will be allowed to bring the same to any military post within the State of Mississippi, and abandon it to the agent of the Treasury Department at said post, to be disposed of in accordance with such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may establish. At posts where there is no such agent, the Post-Quartermaster will receive all such property, and, at the option of the owner, hold it till the arrival of the agent, or send it to Memphis, directed to Captain A. R. Eddy, A. Q. M., who will turn it over to the properly authorized agent at that place.

4. Within the county of Warren, laid waste by the long presence of contending armies, the following rules to prevent suffering will be observed:

Major-General Sherman, commanding the Fifteenth army corps, and Major-General McPher son, commanding the Seventeenth army corps, will each designate a commissary of subsistence, who will issue articles of prime necessity to all desti

1

tute families calling for them, under such restrictions for the protection of the Government as they deem necessary. Families who are able to pay for the provisions drawn will in all cases be required to do so.

All male negroes who are incapacitated by old age, ill health, or in any other respect, from serving in regiments of African descent, will be duly cared for and assigned as heretofore to the nearest camp for such persons.

By order of the Secretary of War,
L. THOMAS,

JOSEPH A. WARE.

Adjutant-General.

GENERAL BANKS'S ORDER.

By order of Major-General U. S. GRANT. T. S. BOWERS, A. A. A. G.

GENERAL THOMAS'S ORDER.

VICKSBURGH, MISS., August 18, 1863. SPECIAL ORDERS No. 45.-Under instructions from the Secretary of War, the undersigned hereby announces his return to this region of the country for the purpose of continuing the organization into the military service of the United States of all able-bodied male persons of African descent, who may come within our lines, or who may be brought in by our troops, or who may already have placed themselves under the protection of the Federal Government; also to take such measures as may prove most beneficial for the welfare of all women, children, aged and infirm persons of African descent who may have sought refuge within our lines, or who may hereafter do so.

In future all able-bodied male negroes of the above class will at once be organized by such officers as may be detailed for that duty, into the military service of the United States, when they will be assigned to regiments composed of persons of African descent now in process of formation or to be formed hereafter.

}

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, NEW-ORLEANS, August 21, 1863. GENERAL ORDER.-I. Colonel John S. Clark, Major B. Rush Plumley, and Colonel George H. Hanks are hereby appointed a commission to reg

education of persons of color. All questions concerning the enlistment of troops for the Corps d'Afrique, the regulation of labor, or the government and education of negroes, will be referred to the decision of this commission, subject to the approval of the commanding general of the department.

be authorized or permitted, except under regulaII. No enlistments for the Corps d'Afrique will tions approved by this commission.

III. The Provost-Marshal General will cause to be enrolled all able-bodied men of color, in accordance with the law of conscription, and such number as may be required for the military defence of the department, equally apportioned to the different parishes, will be enlisted for military service under such regulations as the Commission may adopt. Certificates of exemption will be furnished to those not enlisted, protecting them from arrest or other interference, except for crime.

IV. Soldiers of the Corps d'Afrique will not be allowed to leave their camps, or wander through the parishes, except upon written permission, or in the company of their officers.

It is further considered expedient that all children and families of negro descent who may hereafter be desirous of seeking refuge within the lines of the United States troops, be advised to remain on the plantations or elsewhere where they have heretofore been in a state of servitude, provided such place be under the control of the National troops. All such negroes will receive the protection of this Government while they remain in the locations that may be designated, and all such persons as may be authorized to occupy plantations or other places will be permitted to employ these families and children in any capacity most suited to their ability.

VI. Arrests of persons and seizures of property will not be made by colored soldiers, nor will they be charged with the custody of persons and accompanied by duly authorized officers. or property, except when under the command

VII. Any injury or wrong done to the family of any soldier, on account of his being engaged in military service, will be summarily punished.

VIII. As far as practicable, the labor of persons not adapted to military service will be provided in substitution for that of enlisted men.

IX. All regulations hitherto established for the government of negroes, not inconsistent herewith, will be enforced by the Provost-Marshals of the different parishes, under direction of the ProvostMarshal General.

By command of Major-General BANKS. RICHARD A. IRWIN, A. A. General.

Doc. 151.

LETTER OF M. F. MAURY.

To the Editor of the London Times:

SIR: So far from the prospects of the South looking "blue," they were never more brighter. I think you also will so consider them if you will for a moment occupy with me the only standpoint from which a correct view may be had of the American struggle.

In the first place, what, let us inquire, is the object of the belligerents in this war? The North is fighting for conquest, and makes the attack. The South is fighting to be let alone, and it acts on the defensive. The South, therefore, cannot stop the war, but the North can.

It is generally conceded by military men, and admitted by most persons who are familiar with transatlantic affairs, that the North cannot overcome and subdue the South. All the world knows that it is no part of the programme of the South to attempt to subjugate the North. This it neither would, should, nor can do.

Again, almost all the statesmen, either of England or of the continent, who have watched the progress of events since the war began, admit that the Union, the bond of which was voluntary fraternization, cannot be restored by force of arms.

Since, then, the Union is gone, and neither party can subjugate the other, it follows that the war is not to be ended by the sword.

Other agents have to be called into play. What are they? Let us inquire. They are, divisions in the camp of the enemy, dissensions among the people of the North. There is already a peace party there. All the embarrassments with which that party can surround Mr. Lincoln, and all the difficulties that it can throw in the way of the war party in the North, operate directly as so much aid and comfort to the South.

As an offset, then, against the tide of military reverses which in the first weeks of July ran so strong against the South, and from which our friends in England seem not to have recovered, let us look to those agencies that are to end the war, and inquire what progress has been made on the road to peace, and, consequently, in our favor, notwithstanding these military reverses.

Notwithstanding these the war is becoming more and more unpopular in the North. In proof of this, I point to the conduct of the Pennsylvanians during Lee's invasion of that State, to the riots in New-York, to the organized resistance to the war in Ohio, and to other circumstances with which the English public has been made acquainted by the newspaper press.

New-York is threatening armed resistance to the Federal Government. New-York is becoming the champion of States' rights in the North, and to that extent is taking Southern ground. Mr. Lincoln has not only judged it expedient to unmuzzle the press in New-York, and deemed it prudent to give vent to free speech there, but he is evidently afraid to enforce the conscription in the Empire State. The conscription act itself,

moreover, seems to be so abortive throughout Yankee land generally that he cannot now muster forces enough to follow up his July successes. Grant has become afraid of Johnston's decoy, which aimed to entice him off to the swamps and canebrakes of the Mississippi. He has, therefore, given up the so-called pursuit and taken to his darling gunboats.

Banks has left Port Hudson, to be routed, it is said, beyond the Mississippi, by Taylor, with severe loss.

Rosecrans has not sufficiently recovered from the blow that Bragg gave him last Christmas in Murfreesboro to follow up that retiring confederate, while Bragg has forces in the Federal General's rear.

In the attack upon Charleston the enemy is losing ground. He is evidently giving way. He has been driven from James's Island, and we are planting batteries there which will sweep Morris Island, which is nothing but a sand-beach. So Charleston may be considered safe.

As for Meade, he simply stands at bay behind Lee.

Thus the military tide which set in with so much Federal promise on the young flood in July, and which has so damped the spirits of our English friends and depressed Southern securities, appears suddenly to have slackened, and to be on the point of again turning in our favor, and that, too, under auspices which seem more propitious than ever.

Vallandigham waits and watches over the border, pledged-if elected Governor of the State of Ohio-to array it against Lincoln and the war, and to go for peace. What the result of the election there will be I cannot tell; but the canvass is going on, and we know that opposition to Lincoln and his war party is growing more and more popular every day, and throughout the whole North. Witness Burnside's decree, putting, in violation of all legal right and constitutional power, the State of Kentucky under martial law, and that, too, just as the elections are coming off in that State. He orders the Commissioners of Elections to let none vote but friends of Lincoln and the Union; and the last steamer brings the announcement, in the jubilant rhetoric of the Yankee press: "The Union ticket has been elected in Kentucky by a large majority." Well it might. There was no other ticket allowed.

Why, but for this growing hostility to Lincoln and the war, put Kentucky under martial law at this late day at all? Simply because of the growing activity and increasing energy of those influences which are at work in the cause of peace, and therefore on the side of the sword of the South. These influences are doing more toward bringing the war to an end than all the battles that have been fought since the war began have done.

Indeed, so straitened is Mr. Lincoln at this moment that his partisans are resorting to a desperate game. They are endeavoring to raise the war-cry against France and England, hoping