that the people should be taught the value of their liberties by the price they were forced to pay for them-and that the recollections of the great common contest in which the several States had been engaged should serve as a bond of union between them. The President did not shrink from avowing the misfortunes which had lately befallen the Confederate arms. He termed the present time, when the provisional government had just given place to the permanent government, the darkest period of the struggle, and acknowledged that, after a series of successes and victories, the Confederate armies had recently met with serious disasters. Notwithstanding, he felt sure that, when in heart the people resolved to be free, disasters would but tend to stimulate them to fresh resistance.

During the long course of the war it has never been the policy of either the President or the greater generals of the Confederacy to conceal or gloss over misfortunes and defeat. They appear to have depended so entirely on the deep feelings of the people as to be sure that defeat, far from inclining them to weak submission, would add an incentive to fresh exertions. It was not only in the West that the evils of war pressed hard on the people of the Confederacy during the early part of 1862. The Eastern coast had been invaded by a vast expeditionary force; and it must be our task, having left for the present the States of Kentucky and Tennessee, to trace the events which had occurred on the seaboard cotemporary with the operations of the Western armies.

CHAPTER XII.

OPERATIONS ON THE COAST DURING FEBRUARY AND
MARCH 1862.

IN the before-mentioned memorandum drawn up by General M'Clellan, Commander-in-chief of the Federal armies, and submitted to the President as a synopsis of the projected campaign against the Confederate States, the following recommendation was made:- An essential feature of the plan of operations will be the employment of a strong naval force to protect the movements of a fleet of transports intended to convey a considerable body of troops from point to point of the enemy's seacoast; thus either creating strong diversions, and rendering it necessary to detach largely from their main body, in order to protect such of their cities as may be threatened, or else landing and forming establishments on their coast at any favourable places that opportunity might offer. This naval force should also cooperate with the main army in its effort to seize the important seaboard towns of the rebels.'

To assist in carrying out the scheme thus sketched out, an expedition under General Burnside, composed of troops from New England and the States on the eastern seaboard, in conjunction with a fleet under Commodore Goldsborough, was organised and assembled at Annapolis and Fortress Monroe. Clear directions, both

verbal and in writing, as to the object and conduct of the expedition were furnished to General Burnside by General M'Clellan. The flotilla was ordered to proceed to Hatteras Inlet, of which possession had been obtained during the previous autumn, and after providing for the safety of the garrison at that very important station, General Burnside received directions to make Roanoke Island and its dependencies the first point of attack. He was then to fortify the island, and, in conjunction with the fleet, to seize and hold the debouches of the canal from Norfolk. Following this an assault on Newbern was to be made, and if possible the southern line of railroad through Goldsborough to be occupied, and the Wilmington and Weldon Railway to be destroyed. The town of Beaufort, defended by Fort Macon, was next to be attacked and the port opened, whilst operations against Wilmington were pointed to as the eventual objects of the expedition. Such were the orders issued by General M'Clellan, and it remained for General Burnside to carry them out. There was complete unanimity of feeling, and even personal friendship, between Generals M'Clellan and Burnside; both had been at West Point, both had left the army; but in civil life they had been brought into intimate connection, General M'Clellan having been the manager and General Burnside a subordinate of the Illinois Central Railway. In addition to the military objects of the expedition, political motives also had their weight in determining its destination.

During the early period of the war there was a generally received opinion in the Northern States that a large proportion of the people of North Carolina still nourished in secret an affection for the Union, which would be divulged should a sufficient force arrive in

the State to overpower the dominion of a powerful minority, assisted by the weight and influence of the neighbouring States of the Confederacy. Therefore, with this double object in view, the expedition was organised and assembled at the mouth of the Potomac River. On January 12 it left Fortress Monroe, and after encountering rough and stormy weather, anchored inside Hatteras Inlet on the 17th. The fleet remained at this station for three weeks, and it was not until the beginning of February that an advance was ordered. The defences of Roanoke Island were under the command of the Confederate General Wise, who, however, reported to General Huger, commanding the district of North Carolina. Preparations had been made to meet the attack; but, as was proved, of not sufficient magnitude to repel the large force which was about to be launched against the Confederate defences. The division under General Burnside's command consisted of three brigades, under Generals Forster, Reno, and Parke, and a brigade under General Williams stationed. at Hatteras Inlet, which took no part in the attack. The fleet, comprising in all, with transport and storeships, about sixty-five vessels, consisted of twenty-six gunboats. To meet this large force, the Confederates had but seven gunboats, under Commodore Lynch, and, including the supports which subsequently arrived, about 1,500 or 2,000 men.*

On February 5, the expedition left Hatteras Inlet ; the gunboats moved in advance of the transports which conveyed the troops, whilst others of lighter draught,

*There is much discrepancy between the Confederate and Federal estimates of the numbers; the Confederate accounts state the number of troops to have been less than 1,800, the Federals considerably more.