cating rather than of violating the provisions of the Constitution. Generals M'Dowell, M'Clellan, and Burnside all belonged to the Democratic party, and all showed an anxiety to restrain the increased bitterness which each month of the war developed, and to manifest that they were fighting rather for the reconstruction of the Union than for the conquest and humiliation of the South. General M'Clellan thus defined the object of the war :

'By thoroughly defeating their armies, taking their strong places, and pursuing a rigidly protective policy as to private property and unarmed persons, and a lenient course as to private soldiers, we may hope for a permanent restoration of a peaceful Union. But in the first instance, the authority of the Government must be supported by overwhelming physical force.'* During the time occupied by General Burnside's expe-dition in reducing to submission the several towns on the coast of North Carolina, Commodore du Pont had sailed south from Port Royal, and had captured the towns of Fernandina and Jacksonville on the northern coast of Florida. No resistance had been offered; Commodore du Pont found the defences of Fernandina and Amelia Island abandoned, and was enabled to pass them with vessels of light draught, and to proceed up both the St. Mary and the St. John rivers. The town of Jacksonville on the latter river was occupied, although a portion of it was burned by the retreating Confederates. Some animus was said to have been displayed by the guerilla forces of the neighbourhood in selecting certain mills and houses to be burned, which were the property of

* Memorandum addressed by General M'Clellan to the President in August 1861.

*

Northern men who had settled at Jacksonville and were engaged in the lumber trade. These reverses on the coast were severe blows to the Confederate States, and tended to raise the spirits of the North, which had been slightly depressed by the want of success which attended their arms during the preceding summer. The Federal gunboats established a prestige, which it took a long time to reduce to its proper proportions; men who feared not to encounter far more than their numbers in the field, yet hesitated and often yielded to alarm when exposed to the fire of the more weighty artillery of vessels against which they could offer little resistance. The loss to the Confederacy of so many places on the seaboard rendered the blockade of the remainder more easy, and the attempt, of which there were symptoms during the first months of the war, of creating a Confederate navy appears to have been postponed, if not quite abandoned.

Lumber is the word used in America for timber. Great quantities of the live oak are exported from Florida.

CHAPTER XIII.

CAMPAIGN IN MISSOURI AND NEW MEXICO.

In order to carry out a contemporaneous narrative of the several campaigns, it is requisite, in disregard of the great extent of country which separated the armies, to travel from the shores of Virginia to the westernmost limits, not only of the theatre of war, but even of civilisation. The contending armies of Missouri had gradually moved in a south-westerly direction, and on the confines of Missouri, Arkansas, and the Indian territory, was fought one of the most hardly-contested battles of the early period of the war. It will be remembered that at the close of the year 1861, General Price had established the head-quarters of his army at Springfield, where he also erected huts to shelter his men during the winter. There he received supplies of clothing, and was reinforced by about 4,000 men, raised principally from the State of Missouri. The greater portion of his force was composed of State troops, but on Missouri joining the Southern Confederacy, one brigade was transferred to the Confederate army. In the month of January news reached General Price that the Federals under Generals Curtis and Sigel* were concentrating troops at Rolla and Lebanon. Considering himself too weak in numbers to meet the force they would bring against him, General Price applied

*This name is often written Siegel, but in the American reports the e is omitted.

for assistance to the Confederate commanders in Arkansas, and in the expectation and hope of receiving reinforcements from them he held his position at Springfield until February 12. On that day his pickets were driven in, and finding himself about to be attacked by the combined Federal force, he retreated with little loss to Cassville, and thence to Cross Hollows on the frontier of Missouri, Arkansas, and the Indian territory.* At that place, towards the end of February, his rearguard was attacked by General Curtis, and General Price continued his retreat to Boston Mountains, about fifty miles to the south of Cross Hollows, hoping to form a junction with General M'Culloch. The command of the Confederate troops in the trans-Mississippi department, had been conferred during the month of January, 1862, on General Van Dorn, an officer of the old United States army, who had established his headquarters at Pocahontas, in Arkansas, where he was busily engaged in preparing for the approaching campaign. Having been advised of the retreat of General Price, and of his junction with General M'Culloch, he determined at once to proceed to their camp at Boston Mountains, and to put himself at the head of the combined army. He also issued orders for General Pike, who had organised a small force of Indians, to join him there. On March 4, General Van Dorn, at the head of the combined forces of General M'Culloch and Price, numbering about 16,000 men, marched from the camp at Boston Mountains by the Fayetteville road, with the object of attacking General Curtis. In the meantime General Curtis had crossed the Missouri State line into Arkansas,

* General Price's official report.

and had concentrated the three divisions of his army in the neighbourhood of Sugar Creek, a short distance to the south of Pea Ridge on the Fayetteville road, where he had fortified his position with slight earthworks and abattis. General Sigel's division formed the right, and was stationed near Bentonville, about seven miles distant from the remaining two divisions. The three divisions of the Federal army were under the respective commands of General Sigel, acting Brigadier-General Jeff. Davis, and acting Brigadier-General Carr. After passing through Fayetteville, General Van Dorn, informed of the strong position occupied by the Federals, and hoping to turn their right, and even place himself in the defile in their rear, diverged in a westerly direction from the Fayetteville road, and marched on Bentonville. There, on March 6, he encountered General Sigel's division, and nearly succeeded in cutting it off; however, that general, with considerable skill, and availing himself of the advantages of ground in order to cover his retreat with artillery, succeeded in extricating himself from the perilous position in which he found himself placed, and retired on the main army. The right flank of the Federals had been turned by General Van Dorn's movement, and there was danger lest the road directly in their rear, the only retreat open to them, should be occupied by the Confederates. This road passed through a range of thickly-wooded hills, and formed a defile which could be easily obstructed. To avoid the danger, and defeat the plan of the enemy,' General Curtis, on the night of the 6th or morning of the 7th, issued orders for a change of front to be effected by throwing back his left, the right still maintaining the position it occupied at Sugar Creek Hollows, but