Three days after the surrender of Fort Donelson -viz., February 19th-the electoral votes for the Confederate Presidency were examined, and it was found that Mr. Davis had been unanimously elected to the chief position. He had, in fact, occupied that position from the very creation of the league; but this provisional tenure was now formally confirmed. At the same time, Mr. Alexander H. Stephens was established in his office as Vice-President. The inauguration took place on the 22nd of the same month, on an open spot in front of the building appropriated to the State Legislature. The President and his subordinate stood close to a statue of Washington, and the fact that that was the anniversary of Washington's birth added to the impressiveness of the ceremonial. Mr. Davis began his inaugural address by reiterating the old charges brought against the North, and by affirming that a military despotism of the most cruel and remorseless kind had been established at the Federal capital. With equal assurance, and with as little foundation in fact, he alleged that his own Government had been one of perfect freedom and unqualified legality. He had desired peace, but the United States would insist upon war. Nevertheless, the Confederation had prospered. The number of the States thus linked together had grown from six to thirteen; and Maryland, already associated with them by hallowed memories and material interests, would, he believed, connect her destiny with the South as soon as she was able to speak with unstifled voice. A million of men, it had been estimated, were then standing in hostile array, and waging war along a frontier extending thousands of miles. The tide had for the moment turned against the Confederates; but the final result, Mr. Davis felt assured, would be in their favour. The "pretended blockade," as the Southern President described it, was fast making them a selfsupporting and an independent people; yet foreign countries were concerned in opening the Confederate markets to their commerce.

"When,"

pursued Mr. Davis, "the independence of the Confederate States is recognised by the nations of the earth, and we are free to follow our interests and our inclinations by cultivating foreign trade, the Southern States will offer to manufacturing nations the most favourable markets which ever invited their commerce. Cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, provisions, timber, and naval stores, will furnish

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attractive exchanges." This was one of the many offers which Mr. Davis was in the habit of making periodically to foreign countries to induce them to recognise the Confederacy. As a further persuasion, he drew a most idyllic picture of the reign of peace which was to be inaugurated by a Government which denied the rights of millions of its people, and made slavery its corner-stone. The citizens of the Confederate States, he urged, were too deeply interested in foreign commerce to disturb it out of any wanton motive. They could wage no war of conquest, because the nature of their Republic admitted of no coerced association; nor could there be any civil war in a Confederacy of which the component parts were held together by their volition only. Mr. Davis forgot that, by the contention of all Southern politicians, the United States themselves were equally framed upon the principle of voluntary association. If that principle, supposing it to have really existed, had been violated in the one case, it might equally, in course of time, be violated in the other. In truth, no system of polity can be created, so absolutely free from doubtful provisions, and from the clash of contending interests, as to be placed above the possibility of internal feuds. Least of all is this likely to be the case where the Government is based on privilege, where a small class of territorial magnates is set in opposition to a large class of miserable labourers, and where the elements of discord strike deeper, and undermine more surely, in proportion as they are violently suppressed and disingenuously denied. The most creditable part of Mr. Davis's address was that in which he admitted the serious defeats which had recently been inflicted on the Confederate armies. "At the darkest hour of our struggle," he said, "the provisional gives place to the permanent Government. After a series of successes and victories which covered our arms with glory, we have recently met with serious disasters; but, in the heart of a people resolved to be free, these disasters tend but to stimulate to increased resistance." It is always better to admit a defeat frankly than to put it forward as a victory, or at the worst a trifling check. This virtue of sincerity was certainly evinced by the Southern President in his inaugural address; but it must not be permitted to relieve from condemnation those principles of which Mr. Davis was the foremost champion and the chosen head.

half a million men into the field (it was in truth more even than that), and swelled the proportions of the war far beyond the expectations of the world.*

The

The energy of the United States was now about to be exhibited in a military and naval expedition against the coast of North Carolina. The land forces were to be under the command of General Burnside, an officer professionally educated, who, after quitting the army, had rejoined it on the secession of the South. Commodore Goldsborough was appointed to the direction of the fleet, and this was ordered to assemble at Annapolis and Fortress Monroe, and afterwards to proceed to Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, where the garrison stationed there some months before was to be strengthened, as a preliminary to ulterior proceedings. expedition quitted Fortress Monroe on the 12th of January, and anchored inside Hatteras Inlet on the 17th. It was not until the beginning of February, however, that the allied commanders began operations against Roanoke Island, which was to be the first point of attack. This insular territory had been defended by the Confederates at the northern extremity, but not at the southern. A few weeks before, that part of North Carolina east of the river Chowan, together with the counties of Washington and Tyrrell, was separated from the remainder, and constituted a military district under BrigadierGeneral Henry A. Wise (formerly Governor of Virginia), who was attached to the command of Major-General Huger, of the Norfolk department. The island of Roanoke is situated between Roanoke Sound, on the east, and Croatan Sound, on the west. Commanding both channels, it was a position of importance, for its possession gave a hold over all the north-eastern parts of North Carolina, unlocked several rivers, canals, and railways, and exposed Portsmouth and Norfolk, in Virginia, to an attack in the rear. Yet, notwithstanding its great value from a strategical point of view, little had been done by the Confederates to secure it. General Wise had repeatedly called the attention of the authorities at Richmond to the necessity of providing more efficient protection; but his representations produced very slight effect. Some piles had been driven into the adjacent sands, and a few batteries had been planted on the marshy soil; but there was nothing capable of resisting a vigorous assault. The situation was so unhealthy that even the negroes employed in erecting the works had suffered greatly from malaria, notwithstanding their usual strength and power of en

*Pollard's First Year of the War, chap. 8.

durance. Wise was so prostrated with illness that he was obliged to hand over the defence to Colonel Shaw; and the attack was awaited under dispiriting circumstances. The number of the Confederate troops seems not to have been more than 2,000; and the fleet consisted of only seven gunboats, which were stationed, under the command of Commodore Lynch, in the sound between Roanoke Island and the mainland.

The attack took place on the morning of February 7th, when the Federal gunboats entered the narrow channel of Croatan Sound. Feeling his inability to cope with so powerful an enemy, Commodore Lynch withdrew his gunboats under cover of the batteries. By noon, the firing was general, and Wise, who was on the mainland, sent his son with a reinforcement of troops, who disembarked with some difficulty. One of the Confederate gunboats was sunk, and the firing did not cease till dark, though the loss in killed and wounded was very small on both sides. The operations of the land troops were now about to commence. They had been conveyed by the transports into Croatan Sound, and were landed in rear of the enemy's gunboats, and beyond the range of the Confederate batteries, by eleven o'clock at night. Their advance, however, was postponed until the following morning, when they proceeded in three columns through a swampy tract of ground, covered with forest. In the immediate neighbourhood of the Confederate works, the trees had been cut down, so that the range of the guns might not be interrupted; but at a little distance the woods were untouched, and offered excellent cover to the Federals. The position of the Southerners seemed fairly good in a military sense. They had marshy grounds on both flanks, and appear to have reckoned, not altogether without reason, on being protected against attack in those directions. It turned out, however, that the marshes were capable of being passed, and the Confederates were compelled to abandon their entrenchments. Pursued by the attacking force, they rushed towards the shore, and embarked in boats, which were towed away by a steamer; but several were captured, including a number of the wounded. The whole island thus fell into the hands of the Federals, at a very small cost of life. Amongst the killed on the side of the Confederates was Lieutenant Wise, son of the General, who was struck in four places, and expired in the hands of the Northern troops, by whom he was kindly treated. The Confederate gunboats were followed by a squadron from the opposing fleet, and attacked on the 10th, while drawn up in the narrow channel

which leads to Elizabeth City. After a little resistance, the Southern crews set fire to their vessels, abandoned them, and sought refuge on shore. The small town of Winton, on the river Chowan, was next set on fire by the invading troops, and several of the streams were ascended; but the Union sentiment, of which so much had been heard, was not discoverable among the inhabitants.

In a Message to Congress, President Davis referred to the capture of Roanoke Island as "deeply humiliating," and a committee of the Legislature, appointed to investigate the affair, decided that the responsibility for the disaster must rest with General Huger, as commander of the department, and Mr. Judah P. Benjamin, the Secretary of War, but especially the latter. The report of the committee stated that Mr. Benjamin had paid no practical attention to the appeals of General Wise, and he was charged with having by his neglect conduced to the misfortune which had occurred. Great was the unpopularity of the War Minister; but he had a friend in Mr. Davis, who promoted him to the higher post of Secretary of State. This was one of numerous facts which disgusted the Southern people with the Government now set over them, and which probably made not a few regret that they had abandoned the old Union under which they had for many years been strong and prosperous. Pride alone would keep them from confessing such a sentiment. The contest, having been begun, must be fought out. But it was obvious that the Confederacy, from which they hoped so much, was bringing them very doubtful blessings. It was bringing them defeat and ruin. It was placing over their heads a number of adventurers, whose eagerness to live on the public was much more apparent than their ability to serve the cause. It was even endangering slavery, by associating that institution with defeat; and it had proved itself incapable of obtaining the support of any foreign Power. These were the facts which in the early part of 1862 stood most prominently before the Southern public.

It was now determined by the Federal Government to attack Newbern, situated near the river Neuse, on a line of rail connecting Beaufort with Raleigh. The troops, after a long and weary march over roads deep in mud, found themselves in front of the town on the night of March 13th, and the assault commenced on the following morning. The place was defended by a line of forts, some way in advance of the houses, and so heavy a fire was kept up on the attacking regiments that orders were at last given for storming the principal work. This was at length effected, after a very severe

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struggle, and the Confederates, seeing that their position was turned, and that the enemy's gunboats were ascending the river, gave up all for lost. this opportune moment, the whole Federal line advanced, and the Southerners fled with the utmost precipitation. One of the forts was blown up, and the defeated troops, retreating across the Neuse, burned the bridge, in order to hinder the pursuit. The town of Newbern, on being entered by the conquerors, was found to be nearly deserted. The Confederates had set fire to the houses before they left, and the greater part of the town was destroyed. General Burnside did his best to conciliate the few inhabitants who remained; but Newbern was almost annihilated. A large number of guns, two small steamers, a few sailing-vessels, and some naval stores, were the trophies of the battle; and shortly afterwards a detachment of gunboats took possession of Washington, situated at the mouth of the river Tar, in Pamlico Sound. At the same period, Commodore Dupont captured-without, indeed, encountering any resistance the towns of Fernandina and Jacksonville, on the coast of Florida. A large proportion of the Confederate sea-board was now in the hands of the Federals, and the stringency of the blockade in other parts was greatly increased.

The campaign in Missouri was reopened in the early days of 1862. General Price, who was wintering at Springfield, in the southern part of the State, received there some reinforcements, together with supplies of clothing, and at the beginning of the new year was in a somewhat better position for meeting the enemy. Nevertheless, his forces were still 'greatly inferior to those of the Federals; and on the 12th of February, being attacked by the armies of Generals Curtis and Sigel, he found it expedient to retreat to Cassville, and thence to Cross Hollows, on the frontiers of Missouri, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory. But he was not safe even there; and, on his rear-guard coming into collision with the troops under Curtis, he continued his southward retreat to a place called Boston Mountains, where he effected a junction with General McCulloch, the Texan Ranger. The army was shortly afterwards joined by General Van Dorn, an old United States officer, who had command of all the Confederate troops in that locality, and who in the previous year had zealously seconded the treasonable proceedings of General Twiggs in Texas. In addition to the other Southern forces, several Indians, under the command of General Albert Pike, were hurried up, in obedience to the orders of Van Dorn, so that the total army was not inconsider