the blockade.

Resorted to as one of the first acts of the war, it was remorselessly persisted in to the end. With wonderful resolution and industry a great steam navy was created-no insignificant portion of it iron-clad-and the entire Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the Confederacy absolutely sealed. The effect was a thorough destruction of the financial basis of the Confederacy, a paralysis of its industry. Cotton could not go out; and, instead of there being an immense influx of gold, what coin there was in the country passed into the hands of the blockade runner. Nor was the effect of the naval power thus put forth restricted to these great physical results; the capture of New Orleans by Farragut produced a deep moral impression. From that moment the self-reliance of the Confederacy was lost.

Insignificance of

army operations on the coast.

If we examine the national army operations, these are the conclusions to which we shall come. The attempts upon the coast were inconsequential. At the best they only gave a foothold here and there; they did not contribute essentially to the solution of the military problem. The same may be af firmed of the military movements in the states beyond the Mississippi.

The forces which really decided the controversy may be The forces which regarded as grouped in two separate areas decided the war. of action; and, for the sake of clearness, may be designated the Army of the West and the Army of the East. The Army of the East, of which the Potomac Army was the essential element, had its area of action in the region between the two capitals-Washington and Richmond—a region, geographically, of insignificant dimensions. Considered from this point of view, it might be regarded as a stationary force. It discharged a double function, political and military.

The Army of the West, consisting of several associated armies having different designations, had for its first area

The Army of the

force.

of action the region between the Mississippi West a movable River and the Alleghany Mountains; it crossed those mountains, and then assumed for its second area of action the Confederate Atlantic States. In contradistinction to the Army of the East, this was a movable army; its track of march extended through much more than a thousand miles. If figurative language may be used to convey an impressive idea, the effect of the march of this army was as if a gigantic mower, standing at Nashville, had put forth his scythe toward the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and, with a steady sweep, had carried its point over Memphis, Vicksburg, through the States of Mississippi, Alabama, and then northward through Georgia and the Carolinas-a stroke before which cities. and men went down-a deadly stroke; for, with but little exaggeration, it may be said that it left nothing behind it but the bare earth.

I have remarked that the function of the Army of the East was partly political, a statement which requires explanation.

Function of the

Army of the East.

Two considerations led the conspirators to establish their seat of government at Richmond: (1), they expected to Mexicanize the Republic by the seizure of Washington; and Richmond was the most convenient point from which to carry on their operations; (2d), in order to draw Vir ginia into the enterprise of secession, it was necessary to concede ostensibly to her the leading position, and guarantee to her effective military protection. The metropolis of the Confederacy being placed within her limits, insured the continual presence of a powerful army. Accordingly, from the time that the Confederates transferred their seat of government to Richmond, they maintained such a force in its front; and to all foreign nations whose recognition and alliance were sought, this "Army of Northern Virginia" was the outward and visible sign of the strength and independence of the Confederacy.

The function of the national Army of the East was to protect Washington-to antagonize the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, which was slowly but steadily consuming the military strength of the insurgent states. There can be no doubt that, though in a military point of view the capture of Washington would have been an insignifi cant event, in a political point of view it was very differ ent: it would have entailed consequences of the most serious kind in the foreign relations of the nation.

The entire force called into the national service during the war was 2,688,523 men. Of these there were enlisted,

Military force of the government.

Many of these, however, were mustered in more than once. Making suitable allowance for this, and other necessary deductions, it may be concluded that about 1,500,000 soldiers were employed. Of these it is believed that more than 75 per cent. were native Americans, about 7 per cent. were Irish, and 9 per cent. were Germans; the remainder were English, British-American, and other foreigners. Of the one and a half million of soldiers employed, 56,000 were killed in battle, 35,000 died in the hospitals of wounds, 184,000 died in the hospitals of disease, many more died subsequently, the health of still more was irreparably ruined.

Its aggregate losses.

Though the Confederate armies were not equal in strength to the national, there is reason to suppose that the number of their killed, and of their wounded and sick who died in hospital, was not far short of 300,000.

It

may interest us to recall that the entire armies of the

Roman Empire under Augustus Cæsar numbered 340,000 men, exclusive of the battalions maintained in Rome itself; the cost was from fifty to seventy millions of dollars annually. In the French Empire under Napoleon the entire military charge averaged about $200 per man per annum. The cost of supporting the great armies and fleets used in the Civil War is shown by the rapid increase of the national debt. It was, in

Cost of the war.

The great increase indicated by the last item, apparently after the war was over, was due to the paying off of the troops and the settlement of outstanding bills.

Such was the debt; but to it should be added the sums expended by the individual states and local bodies in rais ing and fitting out their several contingents. The total rises above four thousand millions of dollars. Bounties were paid to the amount of about two hundred millions of dollars, and about one hundred millions more to the families of absent and deceased soldiers.

The government at

with the art of war.

It is often said that the American people entered on this conflict unacquainted with the art of war, and first unacquainted hence many mistakes were made by them in its management in the earlier stages. Without contesting the force of this remark, it may be observed that of no nation whatever could the opposite be affirmed. Within comparatively few years the means and the charac ter of warfare had greatly changed. The steam-ship, the locomotive, the electric telegraph, rifled arms, cannon of great calibre, iron-clad ships, turreted monitors had been introduced. No one could tell beforehand how, on the great

scale, these might be best used, nor what their effect would be. For the first time in history, a steam navy was employ ed for a blockade. The question had to be settled whether, in such a service, a steam-ship could be kept at sea for months. It had to be provisioned, supplied with coal, its boilers and machinery kept in repair, its armament and crew maintained in efficiency. Yet so perfectly was this done that the greatest blockade ever undertaken was ef fectually enforced. In England, among those who were competent judges of the difficulties, it was declared that this was the most wonderful fact of the war. An unbroken succession of ships kept guard winter and summer; and so well were they provisioned, that during the four years scurvy in their crews was almost unknown. The English blockade-runners, long, low in the water, narrow, and painted of a dull neutral color, found how difficult it was to escape their vigilance.

But it quickly learn. ed the use of the new appliances.

The military reports show how quickly the use of the new appliances of war was learned, and how effectively they were employed. We have seen (vol. iii., p. 77) that Stanton caused to be transported Hooker's command, 23,000 strong, with its artillery and trains, baggage and animals, from the Rapidan in Virginia to Stevenson in Alabama, a distance of 1192 miles, in seven days. The reports of Major General Meigs, the quartermaster general, contain other similar illustrations. Thus, in the summer of 1864, more than 14,000 mechanics and laborers were employed at Nashville in providing material for Sherman's campaign. There were in store at that post twenty-four millions of rations, and forage to the amount of one hundred and sixty-eight millions of pounds of oats, corn, hay. These stores, and vast numbers of troops, and all the sick and wounded, were transported over a single-track railroad, consisting of two slender rods of iron three hundred miles long, crossing wide rivers, winding through mountain gorges, plunging