Another cotton speculator from Ohio woke up his companion, and exclaimed: "Get up; the town is full of secesh!" Lough jumped up, took a single glance, and replied, excitedly: "King, we're gobbled, by Judas!" King declared he never heard him swear before or since.

Not long after, a member of Van Dorn's staff, who was dealing with the cotton buyers, came to King. "Where do you live?"

"In Newark, Ohio, sir."

"Are you connected with the army?"

"No, sir."

"What are you doing here, sir?"

Here King tried to evade the question.

"Are you not a cotton buyer, sir?"

แ Yes, sir (ahem); have invested all my spare money in cotton, and to-day it has gone up the spout!" (That is to say, lost by the raid.)

The

The truth is, King had his money secreted, excepting seventy dollars in greenbacks, and a gold dollar. officer, returning the wallet, said:

"That little button is worth all the balance."

A Richmond paper contained the following description: "The breaking streaks of daylight showed the Yankee tents with their undisturbed slumbers. A charge was ordered upon them. To paraphrase 'Belgium's' picture:

'Ah, then and there was hurrying to and fro,

And running in hot haste,

And cheeks all pale and blanched with woe,
Exhibiting Yankee cowardice.'"

The last allusion was too true. General Grant was indignant when the news reached him, and issued an order expressing his deep mortification; which, soon after, was followed by another, dismissing Colonel Murphy from the service.

General Grant had to fall back to Holly Springs, get fresh supplies in place of those destroyed, and move again onward.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Grand Plan Deranged-Sherman's Flotilla-His Assault on Vicksburg -Defeat-Fatal Ambition-Disloyalty-President's Proclamation of Freedom and General Grant-Vicksburg again-Canals around the City a Failure-The Copperhead and the Bush.

OW much evil may result from a single blunder, or, what is far worse, a neglect of duty! A lad, several years ago, by a wilfully careless dis regard of his mother's counsels, set fire to the mansion, and consumed everything but the fam

ily with it.

The cowardly conduct of the colonel at Holly Springs was not only followed by pillage and burning there, but interfered with General Grant's whole plan respecting Vicksburg.

General Sherman, a gallant officer at Memphis, was intrusted with a grand expedition down the river, to cooperate with the former in the bold attempt to get that key of the Mississippi, which would open its waters to the impatient West.

December 20th, his magnificent flotilla of one hundred

and twenty-seven steamers, besides gunboats, moved down the Mississippi-a sight you, my reader, would like to have witnessed. With streamers flying and bands playing, for miles the Father of Waters presented a rare and stirring scene.

General Sherman did not know of General Grant's detention at Holly Springs. December 27th he arrived at Johnson's Landing, near the mouth of Yazoo River. He immediately prepared to assault Vicksburg from the north.

Sunday, the 27th, the engagement became general. There stood Sherman's "Right Wing of the Army of the Tennessee," amid the sloughs, bayous, and lagoons of the swampy ground between the hills and the city; while the enemy, reënforced by troops which fled before General Grant, rained death on their "rank and file," and the sharpshooters in the woods picked off the officers.

Over ditches in which the horses mired and were left, across bloody rifle pits, through dense woods, and over heaps of fallen timber, the columns struggled, to the sound ringing above all the tumult, "Forward!" It was all in vain. General Sherman was compelled to retire, and reembark his troops. In the affair, he did not wait for General Grant, excusing himself by saying, in his order after the battle: "We were on time; unforeseen contingencies must have delayed others."

The costly and fruitless assault looks like the adventurous, ambitious effort to do the work and win the laurels

alone. If so, how unlike the patient leader of the ad. vancing host!

After hostilities had ceased, and the slain and wounded were borne away under a flag of truce, the pickets had the following talk:

"How far is it to Vicksburg?"

Rebel picket. "So far you'll never git thar."
Federal picket. "How many men have you got?"
Rebel picket. "Enough to clean you out."

Then another rebel, who seemed to be the stump speaker of the squad, with a flourish, added:

"Banks has been whipped out at Port Hudson, Memphis has been retaken, and you Yankees will not take Vicksburg till hell freezes over."

And so the conversation went on during the four hours of truce. The profane assertion of the rebel was destined to be refuted in the heat of the next midsummer.

Meanwhile, General Grant, having detected disloyalty in the One Hundred and Ninth Illinois Infantry, he immediately put the regiment under arrest, having their arms taken away. A court of inquiry exonerated the troops, excepting the lieutenant-colonel and several subordinate officers, and restored them to their place, "where the Command. ing General hoped to find them among the pure and patri otic, in their country's defence."

Soon after, General Grant's headquarters again were removed to Memphis, Tenn.

January 1st, 1863! Most memorable New-Year's