Winslow, and on the 15th of June that officer received a note from Captain Semmes, of the Confederate privateer, announcing his intention to fight the Kearsarge, and begging Captain Winslow not to depart until the two vessels should have had an opportunity of measuring their strength. The combat took place on June 19th, at about seven or eight miles from the land, and, by the aid of glasses, was witnessed by many spectators on the French shore. The Alabama was accompanied by a French iron-clad, and followed by a steam-yacht owned by an English gentleman, who was on board at the time with his family. It was stated in America, and it is to be feared cannot be disproved, that the crew of the privateer consisted for the most part of British subjects, and that her gunners were trained artillerists from the British practiceship Excellent. It was also alleged that the English yacht acted as a tender to the Alabama. The battle was hot, but not very prolonged, and it resulted in the Alabama running up the white flag, and sending off her crew in boats. Twenty minutes after this, the vessel went down, and the Kearsarge then did its utmost to rescue a large number of men who were struggling in the water. Semmes was wounded in the contest, and, being picked up by the yacht, was carried to England, together with several others. Many of the Confederates died of their wounds, or were drowned in the sea; while on board the Kearsarge there were no deaths, and only three persons wounded.

The Georgia was seized by the Niagara off the coast of Portugal, on the 15th of August, and, although having no armament on board at the time, was taken as a lawful prize, and sent to the United States for adjudication. The Florida,

while lying in the neutral port of Bahia, Brazil, was captured by the Wachusett on the morning or the 7th of October. In the following month, the Florida was taken into Hampton Roads, where, while she was waiting decision on the international question, whether Brazilian neutrality had not been violated by the seizure of the vessel in a Brazilian port, she was run into by a steam-transport, and sunk. The collision was said to have been accidental; but by many it was doubted whether the circumstances were not purposely contrived, in order to avoid the mortification of returning the Florida to Brazilian waters. That the capture had been illegal was afterwards acknowledged by Mr. Seward, who informed the Brazilian Government that the captain of the Wachusett would be suspended and brought to a court-martial, that the consul at Bahia (who had been concerned in the

wrongful act) would be dismissed, and that the crew of the Florida would be set at liberty. At the same time, the American Secretary of State contended, not without reason, that the recognition of belligerent rights in the insurgent citizens of the United States was an act of intervention, in derogation of the law of nations, unfriendly to the United States, and injurious to their interests; that the harbouring of piratical ships and their crews in Brazilian ports, and the furnishing of them with necessaries, were wrongs done to the American people; and that for such acts Brazil justly owed reparation to the United States, as ample as the reparation which she herself was then receiving.

Some important operations against Fort Fisher, protecting the mouth of Cape Fear River, North Carolina, took place at the close of 1864, and in the opening days of the following year. This fort covered the harbour of Wilmington, one of the great resorts of the blockade-runners; and, until it could be reduced, Wilmington was secure from attack, together with the vessels which preyed on American commerce. In the early winter, a detachment of 6,500 men, under General Butler, was sent to act in concert with Admiral Porter. The fort was defended by rather less than 1,000 men, under General Whiting and Colonel Lamb. The assailants were in every respect much stronger than the assailed; but it was not proposed to take the fort by storm. A plan was formed for destroying the work by blowing up a powder-vessel beneath its walls, and 215 pounds of the explosive were placed on board the steamer Louisiana, which, under pretence of being a blockade-runner, was anchored within three-quarters of a mile of the fort. The attempt, however, turned out a complete failure; for, although the powder exploded, the several bags, owing to some defect in the complicated machinery by which the ignition was to be produced, did not take fire simultaneously, and the effect was thus dissipated. The idea of the powderboat was General Butler's, and was suggested by the effect of a great explosion which had occurred at Erith, on the Thames, a few months earlier. The boat was fired on the morning of December 24th, but the detonation was productive of none but trifling results. It was followed on the same day by a tremendous bombardment of the fort. The fleet was extremely powerful; but, although the roar of the guns was terrific, and the garrison, expecting immediate death, crowded into the bombo-proof galleries, very little damage was effected. The attack was renewed on the following day, when a detachment of more than 2,000 men, commanded

and an additional brigade of 1,500 men. Having arranged a plan of operations with Admiral Porter, General Terry made his way to New Inlet, by which Cape Fear River is approached from the Atlantic. While the ironsides and monitors shelled the fort, the disembarkation of the troops was effected on the 13th of January. The works were presently bombarded by all the vessels of the fleet, and the garrison were able to make scarcely any reply, owing to the inferiority of their guns. General Bragg, who was at Wilmington, sent on some reinforcements; but little could be done against so

terrible and concentrated a fire. The small gunboats got in very close on the 14th, and, firing with great accuracy, dismounted some of the guns on the land-face. Preparations were made for an assault on the following day. The walls were beginning to show signs of serious injury. The rampart was overthrown, the palisades were torn away, and communication with the mines was cut off. Early in the afternoon, three brigades, under the immediate command of General Ames, were sent against the north-eastern rampart, while a party of sailors and marines, who had landed on the beach, made a feint against the sea-face. The Confederates fought with much resolution, and the two principal commanding officers were severely wounded; but the determination of the Federals was equal to that of their enemies. From one position to another the defenders of the fort were driven back; the whole work was at length abandoned; and the garrison, flying to the extremity of the neck of land on which the fort was built, threw down their arms in despair. The feint against the sea-face had been badly managed, and resulted in a somewhat precipitate retreat of the sailors; but the main attack had been successful in the highest degree, and, now that Fort Fisher had fallen, Wilmington lay at the mercy of the conquerors. For the present, however, it was not attacked. The other works at the entrance to Cape Fear River were abandoned by the Confederates, and the stream was entered by the Federals, when they had removed the torpedoes by which its channel was endangered. A few days afterwards, the iron-clad squadron which had recently been built at Richmond, and launched on the James, made an attempt to destroy the pontoonbridges and transports by which the Federals were supporting their operations in that quarter. On the night of January 24th, the Confederate vessels tried to force their way through the obstructions. One of the iron-clads passed a boom which had been drawn across the channel; but three larger vessels grounded, and in the early morning, when the shore-batteries opened fire, the flotilla was compelled to withdraw.

Peace negotiations, of a more formal character than those which had preceded them, were re-opened in January. Three commissioners-one of whom was Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy—were charged with power to arrange with Federal agents the terms on which peace might be concluded. After some preliminary discussions, which ended in nothing but a more complete manifestation of the inability of the two sides to find any common ground of agreement, Mr. Lincoln

went in person to Fortress Monroe, where the previous interviews had taken place, and met the commissioners, in company with Mr. Seward. Nothing, however, was effected. Mr. Lincoln was not likely to recede from his inflexible demand of absolute submission on the part of the South; the commissioners were not empowered to make any such terms. The conference was held on the 3rd of February, and it was the last attempt on the part of the Confederacy to obtain peace together with independence. The game was very nearly played out, and the South was shortly compelled to accept peace on any terms it could get.

men.

On the 25th of January, Mr. Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation for a general fast, in the course of which he frankly admitted the many reverses of the Southern arms. The resources of the Confederacy were now becoming low indeed. Not only was there a deficiency of troops, but there was a want of weapons with which to arm them. On the same day that Mr. Davis issued his proclamation for a fast, General Lee (who a few days later was appointed to the supreme command of all the Confederate armies) made an urgent call on civilians for the supply of small-arms to the forces. "To arm and equip an additional force of cavalry," he said, "there is need of carbines, revolvers, pistols, saddles, and other accoutrements of mounted Arms and equipments of the kind desired are believed to be held by citizens in sufficient numbers to supply our wants. Many keep them as trophies, and some in the expectation of using them in their own defence. But it should be remembered that arms are now required for use, and that they cannot be made so effectual for the defence of the country in any way as in the hands of organised troops. They are needed to enable our cavalry to cope with the well-armed and equipped cavalry of the enemy, not only in the general service, but in resisting those predatory expeditions which have inflicted so much loss upon the people of the interior." One sentence in General Lee's appeal was especially noteworthy. "Those," he observed, "who think to retain arms for their defence should remember that, if the army cannot defend them, the arms will be of little use." To this, then, it had come at length. Beggared in men, beggared in weapons, the Confederate commanders were reduced to sue for a few carbines and revolvers, such as the planters may have kept in their own houses in the hope of slaying Federal soldiers when the last desperate hour should have arrived. Lee was right in saying that, if such arms were to be used at all, they should be used by regular forces in the operations of regular warfare; but the Southern slave

SHERMAN rested at Savannah only long enough to prepare for that further advance of his armies which he from the first judged to be necessary. To penetrate northwards through South Carolina, to enter North Carolina, and in due time to combine his forces with those besieging Petersburg and Richmond, seemed to him the most likely way of terminating the war, and ensuring the submission of the slave-holding Power. General Grant desired that the whole of Sherman's army should at once be transported by sea from Georgia to the banks of the James River; but the hero of Savannah considered that it would be far better to march through the intervening country, reducing it to submission by an overwhelming display of force. The land, it is true, presented in many parts great difficulties to the progress of a hostile body; but the Confederate army was now so reduced in numbers, and so broken in spirits, that little active opposition was to be feared. In January, 1865, General Beauregard was at Augusta, on the Georgian side of the Savannah River, endeavouring to scrape together from various localities a force of sufficient magnitude to resist the further measures of Sher

Hill, and also of Wade Hampton, who commanded the cavalry. The want, indeed, was not in generals, but in men, so that little could be done to protect the roads by which Sherman would move towards the more northern States. On the completion of his preparations at Savannah, that commander found himself at the head of 60,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and artillery in proportion. A detachment of this force he left at Savannah, and with the rest (forming the larger part) set out for Goldsborough, in North Carolina. To deceive the enemy, demonstrations were to be made against Charleston to the right, and Augusta to the left; and, while these were in progress, the main body was to push forward along the causeways by which the marshes of the coast are traversed. The advance did not fairly commence until the 1st of February, when the several divisions set out on their northward march, and entered on a dreary tract of flooded lands, where the Confederate cavalry had done their utmost to impair the roads and destroy the bridges, and where therefore it was necessary to conduct many engineering operations before the troops could pursue their course. It is lamentable to be obliged to add that the march was characterised by the same acts of wanton ferocity which had marked the progress of the Federal armies from Atlanta to Savannah. In South Carolina, as in Georgia, houses, barns, agricultural produce, and even large woods, were set on fire, and the invaders, as they passed over the country, left behind them a blackened desert, stripped of everything which could support the life of man or beast.

The Confederates held the line of the Salkahatchie, but, on their positions being forced, fell back behind the Edisto at Branchville, where they burned two bridges. Sherman's forces, however, crossed the stream, and advanced towards Orangeburg, which was occupied on the 12th of February. Wade Hampton was now compelled to fall back on Columbia, the State capital, situated north of the Congaree River. The bridge in front of the town. was burned by the retreating Southerners; but the Federals, on reaching the banks of the Congaree, early in the morning of February 16th, passed the river by means of extemporary bridges, and received the surrender of Columbia. The place was consumed by fire on the night of the 17th; but General Sherman charged this fact on Wade Hampton himself, who, it is alleged, applied the torch to a large quantity of cotton and lint stored up in the town, blazing fragments of which were carried by an unusually high wind in many directions. Hampton denied the accusation, and vehemently asserted that the city was fired by the brutality of Sherman's own men. Wherever the truth may have lain with regard to the conflagration, it is unfortunately only too certain that the Federal troops behaved towards the townspeople with unmitigated ferocity. From these frightful scenes it is a relief to turn in other directions. The left wing of the Federals, under Slocum, reached Winnsborough on the 21st, and was followed by the cavalry of Kilpatrick. The latter then moved upon Lancaster, so as to foster the impression that Sherman intended a general march on Charlotte, North Carolina, to which city Beauregard and all the Confederate cavalry had by this date retreated from Columbia.

At the same time, General Hardee evacuated Charleston, it being considered that to retain 11,000 troops within the defences of that city, when they were so much needed to oppose the advance of Sherman, would be a grave mistake. Thus, the original proposal of Beauregard was now adopted; but the time had passed when it was capable if it was ever capable of producing the desired effect. The abandonment of Charleston was attended, on the night of February 17th, by the burning of the city, which was fired by the Confederates themselves, in order that the Northerners should have little but a mass of ruins as the reward of their long endeavours to take this stronghold of rebellion. The Government stores, the railway depôts, and the iron-clads in the harbour, were burned or blown up; the guns on the ramparts were burst; and the rear-guard of Hardee's army left by rail for the north-west, in the midst

of an infernal glare and clamour of destruction, which the Federals were for the moment powerless to prevent. General Gillmore's troops entered the flaming city on the morning of the 18th, and, hoisting the national colours once more over the remnants of the forts, proceeded to subdue the conflagration. But only a small portion of the city could be saved. Charleston, the cradle of the rebellion, had perished in fires of her own kindling —a fit type of that rapacious and cruel oligarchy which would wreck where it could not rule, and which knew no medium between the insolence of domination and the despair of baffled crime. Wilmington, in North Carolina, was also aban

doned.

The reduction of Fort Fisher, on the 15th of January, had greatly diminished the value of the position; and in this instance, as well as in the case of Charleston, it was thought better to add the garrison to the scanty forces then in the field under the directions of Johnston, who had been restored to command as one of the most capable of the Southern leaders, notwithstanding the series of defeats which he had suffered at the hands of Sherman in Georgia. During the depth of winter, the 23rd corps, under Schofield, had been transported from Clifton, on the Tennessee River, to the vicinity of Wilmington, that it might aid in the capture of that city, and, when the main object had been effected, might assist the designs of Sherman by marching on Goldsborough. The siege operations against Wilmington were so vigorously prosecuted that both the outer and the inner line of defences were outflanked in the course of February, and on the 22nd of that month the Confederates under Hoke destroyed the steamers, cotton, and Government stores, and, retreating on Goldsborough, where Johnston was concentrating his forces, abandoned Wilmington to the Federals. Schofield then determined, as soon as his arrangements should be complete, to advance in two columns from Wilmington and Newbern to Goldsborough. But means of transportation could not at once be obtained, and the first week of March had nearly closed ere his movement began.

After quitting Winnsborough, Sherman turned eastwards, and directed his columns on Cheraw, a small town situated on the Great Pedee River, at the termination of the line of rail running from Charleston. His supplies were getting short; the solitary lands where he now found himself yielded but little for the support of his regiments; and it became imperative to open communications with Progress was fatiguing and difficult. Heavy rain was frequently falling, and the roads were so rotten with mud and ooze that it was often

the sea.