operate against Vicksburgh, this time assisted by General Grant. On board the gunboats, which did such good service in this last attack, the loss is inconsiderable, about a dozen killed, and thirty wounded. One shell passed through the forward part of the Louisville, and striking the gun-deck, bounded into the steam-condenser, where its fuse was extinguished. The river fort, upon which the rebels placed so much confidence, and that fell before three vessels of our navy, is a complete ruin. Half its garrison were killed or wounded, a larger proportion than in any similar attack during the war. It is hardly possible now to recognize what were considered by the builders shot and shell-proof casemates. These resembled log-houses, with sides and roof of solid hewn oak timber, three feet thick, and covered by bars of inch iron. The sides faced the river, and out of the casemate in each had peered a nine-inch gun. These, hit by our heavy shot, were two of them broken off near the muzzle, another dismounted, while floors and frames around were clotted with blood as if a slaughter-house for cattle had existed there. A peculiar feature of this battle was that Texas defended Arkansas. All but a thousand of the men were from the former State. W. E. W. Editors Richmond Enquirer: The most remarkable battle of the war has just been fought at this place. It is the first time in the history of this war that three thousand men have resolved to make a stand against fifty thousand infantry, with an immense quantity of artillery and cavalry, together with a cooperating fleet of gunboats, carrying one hundred guns; and it is the first time, too, in the history of the war, that a land-force has unflinchingly withstood a terrible gunboat fire for two days, lying motionless in the trenches, and receiving, at a distance of only two or three hundred yards, every shell, without being able to return a shot. This stand was made not because we expected to be enabled, unassisted, to hold our position, but because we were hourly expecting reënforcements, and because Lieut.-Gen. Holmes had telegraphed Brig.-General Churchill, commanding, to hold the position until all should be dead. devoted heroes, the Spartan glory that was reflected from face to face. Each and every man seemed to feel that it was indeed sweet to die for his country. There they stood, cheerfully awaiting the hour they should be called upon to yield their lives a willing sacrifice upon the altar of their country. Oh! shall I ever forget the day when I rode down the lines and looked upon those faces! The enemy stood in their front, in line of battle, fifty thousand strong; one hundred guns were approaching them by water on the right; a large body of cavalry already encircled them in the rear. But there they stood, like martyrs, glorying in the prospect of proving their devotion to their principles, by yielding up their lives in maintaining them. Before that hour I never knew what patriotism was. How dearly! how devotedly! I loved my country. I felt that each man before me was dearer than a brother, and to embrace him would be a blessing. The thunders of the right announced that the struggle had commenced. I stood and watched it with eager interest. Boat after boat approached our little fort of three guns, and hurled upon it their angry bolts of metallic fury. But thunders answered thunders, and slowly and solemnly the little fort, with its three guns, poured out its vials of wrath upon the cowardly foe, clad in steel. But it was of no avail. I saw gun after gun melt away, until none were left. Their boats passed us, but the Fort was not surrendered; for the fifty thousand had now advanced upon our whole line in front, and the small artillery from the Fort, and all along our line, were giving them the strength of Southern principles. Eight times they advanced upon us; as often they were repulsed, running and yelling like cowardly curs. The battle rages furiously. All our guns are shattered, and every horse is killed. But that devoted band heeds it not, for they were there to die. Their heroic General had told them in the morning: "Boys, let us whip them, or let us all die in the trenches." And they had answered it with three long, loud cheers, and, "General, in the trenches we will die." The struggle is renewed: the thunders of a dozen batteries open on us in front, on the right, on the left, and in the rear. Still that little band stands unmoved, alike by the thunders of artilWe have fought the whole Vicksburgh expedi-lery as well as by the crashing of musketry. tion, and we are now all prisoners of war; but not willingly, nor of our consent. We have been betrayed into the hands of our enemy. Our gallant Gen. Churchill had determined to fight, and to fight to the last, and each man had made a solemn pledge to the General, and to each other, never to surrender, but to hold the Fort until all, all! should die. Every man knew that to conquer was impossible, but to die fighting for his country's honor, was a glorious privilege. Oh! it was a sublime spectacle to behold our commander as he rode along that little line of A shout is heard. Churchill, who holds a charmed life amid a shower of bullets and shattering shell, raises his hat and shouts, "Boys, we are driving them," and dashing forward, exclaims, "Come on!" and on we dashed. But alas! my God, shall I ever forget it? A hundred flags of the hated despot were seen unfurled and floating upon the ramparts of our sacred fort, amid the exultant shouts of a cowardly foe. Oh! can the terrible vision be ever banished from my mind? My heart sank within me. To surrender to that flag? No! never!! to twenty-five of mine. Guerrillas are threatennever!!! We could not do it; and we did not do it. Some base traitor had denied our gallant leader the realization of his fondly cherished hope; and when he had but begun to prove how faithful he was to his promise to yield his and our lives rather than give up the Fort, this craven wretch raised that symbol of cowardice, the white flag, exclaiming at the same time: "General Churchill says, raise the white flag." The enemy saw it, and, being near the lines, (before it could be arrested,) rushed into our Fort. 'Treachery has done its work; and the gallant Churchill, who was so lately robbed of his most coveted privileges, beheld it like a brokenhearted hero, yet sublime in his mien, and appearing like some superior being amidst the multitude around him." We are now on our way to Yankeedom, but we are not conquered. R. H. F. ing Union women in the county. I am arresting General BEN. LOAN, W. R. PENICK, Colonel Fifth Cavalry M.S.M. Jefferson City, Mo. A true copy: H. W. SEVERENCE, Lieutenant and A.D.C. Doc. 103. MESSAGE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. JANUARY 12, 1863. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Confederate States: Ar the date of your last adjournment the pre HEREWITH I inclose you for publication an offi-parations of the enemy for further hostilities had cial communication just received from Colonel Penick, Fifth cavalry, M. S. M., commanding at Independence, that the community may understand and know the kind of foe we have to contend with in Missouri, and whether peace rules supreme within her border. How very pleasant the reflection that in the endurance of all the hardships imposed by our rulers in their attempts to conciliate traitors, upon the loyal inhabitants, that it is a necessity, to enable them hereafter to live in harmony with such demons as those who have perpetrated these outrages. The devils in hell, by comparison, would show as bright angels of light by the side of such men. BEN. LOAN, Brigadier-General M.S.M. assumed so menacing an aspect as to excite in some minds apprehension of our ability to meet them with sufficient promptness to avoid serious reverses. These preparations were completed shortly after your departure from the seat of government, and the armies of the United States made simultaneous advances on our frontiers on the western rivers and on the Atlantic coast in masses so great as to evince their hope of overbearing all resistance by mere weight of number. This hope, however, like those previously entertained by our foes, vanished. In Virginia, their fourth attempt at invasion by armies whose assured success was confidently predicted, has met with decisive repulse. Our noble defenders, under the consummate leadership of their General, have again, at Fredericksburgh, inflicted on the forces under General Burnside the like disastrous overthrow as had been previously suffered by the successive invading armies commanded by Generals McDowell, McClellan, and Pope. HEADQUARTERS FIFTH CAVALRY M.S.M.,) INDEPENDENCE, Mo., January 11, 1863. GENERAL: Private Johnson, of the artillery company, was brought in dead to-day. He is the fifth one murdered last week, four from the artillery and one from the militia. If you could see their mangled bodies, you would not wonder why In the West, obstinate battles have been fought it is that I write you that guerrillas' wives should with varied fortunes, marked by frightful carnage be forced out of the country. They were all on both sides; but the enemy's hopes of deciswounded, and killed afterward in the most horri-ive results have again been baffled, while at Vicksble manner that fiends could devise; all were shot in the head, and several of their faces are terribly cut to pieces with boot-heels. Powder was exploded in one man's ear, and both ears cut off close to his head. Whether this inhuman act was committed while he was alive or not, I have no means of knowing. To see human beings treated as my men have been by outlaws, is more than I can bear. burgh another formidable expedition has been repulsed, with inconsiderable loss on our side, and severe damage to the assailing forces. On the Atlantic coast the enemy has been unable to gain a footing beyond the protecting shelter of his fleets, and the city of Galveston has just been recovered by our forces, which succeeded not only in the capture of the garrison, but of one of the enemy's vessels of war, which Ten of these men, armed as they are, with was carried by boarding parties from merchant their wives and children to act as spies, are equal | river steamers. Our fortified positions have everywhere been much strengthened and improved, affording assurance of our ability to meet with success the utmost efforts of our enemies, in spite of the magnitude of their preparations for attack. A review of our history of the two years of our national existence affords ample cause for congratulation, and demands the most fervent expression of our thankfulness to the Almighty Father who has blessed our cause. We are justified in asserting, with a pride surely not unbecoming, that these confederate States have added another to the lessons taught by history for the instruction of man, that they have afforded another example of the impossibility of subjugating a people determined to be free, and have demonstrated that no superiority of numbers or available resources can overcome the resistance offered by such valor in combat, such constancy under suffering, and such cheerful endurance of privation as have been conspicuously displayed by this people in the defence of their rights and liberties. The anticipations with which we entered into the contest have now ripened into a conviction, which is not only shared with us by the common opinion of neutral nations, but is evidently forcing itself upon our enemies themselves. If we but mark the history of the present year by resolute perseverance in the path we have hitherto pursued, by vigorous effort in the development of all our resources for defence, and by the continued exhibition of the same unfaltering courage in our soldiers and able conduct in their leaders as have distinguished the past, we have every reason to expect that this will be the closing year of the war. The war, which in its inception was waged for forcing us back into the Union, having failed to accomplish that purpose, passed into a second stage, in which it was attempted to conquer and rule these States as dependent provinces. Defeated in this second design, our enemies have evidently entered upon another, which can have no other purpose than revenge, and thirst for blood, and plunder of private property. But however implacable they may be, they can have neither the spirit nor the resources required for a fourth year of a struggle uncheered by any hope of success, kept alive solely for the indulgence of mercenary and wicked passions, and demanding so exhausting an expenditure of blood and money as has hitherto been imposed on their people. The advent of peace will be hailed with joy; our desire for it has never been concealed; our efforts to avoid the war, forced on us as it was by the lust of conquest and the insane passions of our foes, are known to mankind. But, earnest as has been our wish for peace, and great as have been our sacrifices and sufferings during the war, the determination of this people has, with each succeeding month, become more unalterably fixed to endure any sufferings and continue any sacrifices, however prolonged, until their right to self-government and the sovereignty and independence of these States shall have been triumphantly vindicated and firmly established. In this connection, the occasion seems not unsuitable for some reference to the relations between the Confederacy and the neutral powers of Europe since the separation of these States from the former Union. Four of the States now members of the Confederacy were recognized by name as independent sovereignties in a treaty of peace concluded in the year 1783, with one of the two great maritime Powers of Western Europe, and had been prior to that period allies in war of the other. In the year 1778 they formed a union with nine other States under Articles of Confederation. Dissatisfied with that Union, three of them - Virginia, Carolina, and Georgia-together with eight of the States now members of the United States, seceded from it in 1789, and these eleven seceding States formed a second Union, although by the terms of the Articles of Confederation express provision was made that the first Union should be perpetual. Their right to secede, notwithstanding this provision, was never contested by the States from which they separated, nor made the subject of discussion with any third power. When, at a later period, North-Carolina acceded to that second Union, and when, still later, the other seven States, now members of this Confederacy, became also members of the same Union, it was upon the recognized footing of equal and independent sovereignties; nor had it then entered into the minds of men that sovereign States could be compelled by force to remain members of a confederation into which they had entered of their own free will, if at a subsequent period the defence of their safety and honor should, in their judgment, justify with drawal. The experience of the past had evinced the futility of any renunciation of such inherent rights, and accordingly the provision for perpetuity contained in the Articles of Confederation of 1778 was emitted to the Constitution of 1789. When, therefore, in 1861, eleven of the States again thought proper, for reasons satisfactory to themselves, to secede from the second Union, and to form a third one, under an amended constitution, they exercised a right which, being inherent, required no justification to foreign nations, and which international law did not permit them to question. The usages of intercourse between nations do, however, require that official communication be made to friendly powers of all organic changes in the constitution of States, and there was obvious propriety in giving prompt assurance of our desire to continue amicable relations with all mankind. It was under the influence of these considerations that your predecessors, the provisional gov ernment, took early measures for sending to Europe commissioners charged with the duty of visiting the capitals of the different powers, and making arrangements for the opening of more formal diplomatic intercourse. Prior, however, to the arrival abroad of these commissioners, the United States had commenced hostilities against the Confederacy by despatching a secret expedition for the reenforcement of Fort Sumter, after States was the prolongation of hostilities to which our enemies were thereby encouraged, and which have resulted in nothing but scenes of carnage and devastation on this continent, and of misery and suffering on the other, such as have scarcely a parallel in history. Had these powers promptly admitted our right to be treated as all other independent nations, none can doubt that the moral effect of such action would have been to dispel the delusion under which the United States have persisted in their efforts to accomplish our subjugation. an express promise to the contrary, and with a duplicity which has been fully unveiled in a former message. They had also addressed communications to the different Cabinets of Europe, in which they assumed the attitude of being sovereign over this Confederacy, alleging that these independent States were in rebellion against the remaining States of the Union, and threatening Europe with manifestations of their displeasure if it should treat the confederate States as having an independent existence. It soon became known that these pretensions were not considerered abroad to be as absurd as they were known To the continued hesitation of the same powto be at home, nor had Europe yet learned what ers in rendering this act of simple justice toward reliance was to be placed in the official statements this Confederacy is still due the continuance of of the Cabinet at Washington. The delegation the calamities which mankind suffers from the of power granted by these States to the Federal interruption of its peaceful pursuits both in the government to represent them in foreign inter- Old and the New World. There are other matters course had led Europe into the grave error of in which less than justice has been rendered to supposing that their separate sovereignty and in- this people by neutral Europe, and undue advandependence had been merged into one common tage effected on the aggressors in a wicked war. sovereignty, and had ceased to have a distinct At the inception of hostilities the inhabitants of existence. Under the influence of this error, the Confederacy were almost exclusively agriculwhich all appeals to reason and historical fact turists; those of the United States, to a great were vainly used to dispel, our commissioners extent, mechanics and merchants. We had no were met by the declaration that foreign govern- commercial marine, while their merchant vessels ments could not assume to judge between the covered the ocean. We were without a navy, conflicting representations of the two parties as while they had powerful fleets. The advantage to the true nature of their previous mutual rela- which they possessed for inflicting injury on our tions. The governments of Great Britain and coasts and harbors was thus counterbalanced in France accordingly signified their determination some measure by the exposure of their commerce to confine themselves to recognizing the self-evi- to attack by private armed vessels. dent fact of the existence of a war, and to maintaining a strict neutrality during its progress. Some of the other powers of Europe pursued the same course of policy, and it became apparent that by some understanding, express or tacit, Europe had decided to leave the initiative in all action touching the contest on this continent to the two powers just named, who were recognized to have the largest interests involved, both by reason of proximity and of the extent and intimacy of their commercial relations with the States engaged in war. It is manifest that the course of action adopted by Europe, while based on an apparent refusal to determine the question, or to side with either party, was in point of fact an actual decision against our rights and in favor of the groundless pretensions of the United States. It was a refusal to trust us as an independent government. If we were independent States, the refusal to entertain with us the same international intercourse as was maintained with our enemy was unjust and was injurious in its effects, whatever may have been the motive which prompted it. Neither was it in accordance with the high moral obligations of that international code, whose chief sanction is the conscience of sovereigns and the public opinion of mankind that those eminent powers should decline the performance of a duty peculiarly incumbent on them, from any apprehension of the consequences to themselves. One immediate and necessary result of their declining the responsibility of a decision which must have been adverse to the extravagant pretensions of the United It was known to Europe that within a very few years past the United States had peremptorily refused to accede to proposals for abolishing privateering, on the ground, as alleged by them, that nations owning powerful fleets would thereby obtain undue advantage over those possessing inferior naval forces. Yet no sooner was war flagrant between the Confederacy and the United States than the maritime powers of Europe issued orders prohibiting either party from bringing prizes into their ports. This prohibition, directed with apparent impartiality against both belligerents, was in reality effective against the confederate States alone; for they alone could find a hostile commerce on the ocean. Merely nominal against the United States, the prohibition operated with intense severity on the Confederacy, by depriving it of the only means of maintaining, with some approach to equality, its struggle on the ocean against the crushing superiority of naval force possessed by its enemies. The value and efficiency of the weapon which was thus wrested from our grasp by the combined action of neutral European powers, in favor of a nation which professes openly its intention of ravaging their commerce by privateers in any future war, is strikingly illustrated by the terror inspired among the commercial classes of the United States by a single cruiser of the Confederacy. One national steamer, commanded by officers and manned by a crew who are debarred by the closure of neutral ports from the opportunity of causing captured vessels to be condemned in their favor as prizes, has sufficed to double the rates of marine insurance in Northern ports and consign to forced inaction numbers of Northern vessels, in addition to the direct damage inflicted by captures at sea. How difficult, then, to over-estimate the effects that must have been produced by the hundreds of private armed vessels that would have swept the seas in pursuit of the commerce of our enemy if the means of disposing of their prizes had not been withheld by the action of neutral Europe. instance is known in history of the adoption of rules of public law under circumstances of like solemnity with like unanimity, and pledging the faith of nations with sanctity so peculiar. When, therefore, this Confederacy was formed, and when neutral powers, while deferring action on its demand for admission into the family of nations, recognized it as a belligerent power, Great Britain and France made informal proposals about the same time that their own rights as But it is especially in relation to the so-called neutrals should be guaranteed by our acceding blockade of our coast that the policy of European as belligerents to the declaration of principles powers has been so shaped as to cause the great- made by the Congress of Paris. The request was est injury to the Confederacy, and to confer sig- addressed to our sense of justice, and therefore nal advantages on the United States. The im- met immediate favorable response in the resoluportance of this subject requires some develop- tions of the Provisional Congress of the thirteenth ment. Prior to the year 1856 the principles of August, 1861, by which all the principles anregulating this subject were to be gathered from nounced by the Congress of Paris were adopted the writings of eminent publicists, the decisions as the guide of our conduct during the war, with of admiralty courts, international treaties, and the sole exception of that relative to privateering. the usages of nations. The uncertainty and As the right to make use of privateers was one doubt which prevailed in reference to the true in which neutral nations had, as to the present rules of maritime law in time of war, resulting war, no interest, as it was a right which the from the discordant, and often conflicting, prin- United States had refused to abandon and which ciples announced from such varied and independ- they remained at liberty to employ against us, as ent sources, had become a grievous evil to man- it was a right of which we were already in actual kind. Whether a blockade was allowable against enjoyment, and which we could not be expected a port not invested by land as well as by sea, to renounce, flagrante bello, against an adversawhether a blockade was valid by sea if the in-ry possessing an overwhelming superiority of vesting fleet was merely sufficient to render in- naval forces, it was reserved with entire configress to the blockaded port evidently dangerous, dence that neutral nations could not fail to peror whether it was further required for its legality ceive that just reason existed for the reservation. that it should be sufficient really to prevent ac- Nor was this confidence misplaced; for the officess, and numerous other similar questions, had cial documents published by the British governremained doubtful and undecided. Animated by ment, usually called Blue Books, contain the exthe highly honorable desire to put an end to dif- pression of the satisfaction of that government ferences of opinion between neutrals and bellig- with the conduct of the officials who conducted erents which may occasion serious difficulties successfully the delicate business confided to and even conflicts-I quote the official language their charge. -the five great powers of Europe, together with Sardinia and Turkey, adopted, in 1856, the following solemn declaration of principles: Firstly. Privateering is and remains abolished. Secondly. The neutral flag covers enemy's goods, with the exception of contraband of war. Thirdly. Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture under enemy's flag. Fourthly. Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective; that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy. Not only did this solemn declaration announce to the world the principles to which the signing powers agreed to conform in future wars, but it contained a clause to which those powers gave immediate effect, and which provided that the States not parties to the Congress of Paris should be invited to accede to the declaration. Under this invitation every independent State in Europe yielded its assent. At least no instance is known to me of a refusal, and the United States, while declining to assent to the proposition which prohibited privateering, declared that the three remaining principles were in entire accordance with their own views of international law. No These solemn declarations of principle - this implied agreement between the Confederacy and the two powers just named-have been suffered to remain inoperative against the menaces and outrages on neutral rights committed by the United States with unceasing and progressing arrogance during the whole period of the war. Neutral Europe remained passive when the United States with a naval force insufficient to blockade effectively the coast of a single Stateproclaimed a paper blockade of thousands of miles of coast, extending from the Capes of the Chesapeake to those of Florida and to Key West, and encircling the Gulf of Mexico to the mouth of the Rio Grande. Compared with this monstrous pretension of the United States, the blockades known in history under the names of the Berlin and Milan Decrees and the British Orders in Council, in the years 1806 and 1807, sink into insignificance. Yet those blockades were justified by the powers that declared them on the sole ground that they were retaliatory; yet those blockades have since been condemned by the publicists of those very powers as violations of international law; yet those blockades evoked angry remonstrances from neutral powers, amongst which the United States were the most |