grant wins in the west, and farragut at new orleans.
it was on feb. 2, 1862, that the first great move was made af-ter bull run. this broke the line of the foe at the west and gave the mis-sis-sip-pi riv-er, a-bove vicks-burg, in-to the hands of the north.
com. foote, with four gun-boats, and gen. grant with his troops, moved a-gainst fort hen-ry on the
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ten-nes-see riv-er, and on feb. 2d, made it give up. a week went by and on the cum-ber-land riv-er, which there runs near the ten-nes-see riv-er, an-oth-er fort of the foe, don-el-son, twelve miles from fort hen-ry, was tak-en by the same men. there was a stiff fight at fort don-el-son and 2,300 of un-ion sol-diers fell. at last
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that fort was tak-en and 15,000 pris-on-ers with it. all the troops of the foe then had to leave the state of ken-tuc-ky. all the friends of the un-ion cause were full of joy.
the attack on fort donelson.
just in the midst of the great good news from the west came a thing most sad to the hearts of the pres-i-dent’s fam-i-ly. one dear boy fell ill. it was wil-lie lin-coln.
while full of the weight of cares for his land, there came nights and days when it fell to lin-coln’s lot to have to watch the slow steps of death. “it is the hard-est tri-al of my life,” said the sad fa-ther. at last the dear child was gone. one said to the pres-i-dent, “a vast num-ber pray for you to-day.”
mr. lin-coln said “i am glad of that. i want them to pray for me. i need their pray-ers; and i will try to go to god with my sor-row. i wish i had a child-like faith. i trust god will give it to me. my moth-er had it. she died man-y years a-go. i re-mem-ber her pray-ers; they have al-ways fol-lowed me. they have clung to me through life.”
a new style of boat, a small queer craft, was brought forth by the war. she did a great work in hamp-ton
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roads when ships of wood of the north, as they lay at an-chor there, had gone down, when shot at and “rammed” by a new sort of foe.
the se-cret-a-ry of the na-vy at that time was mr. welles. he heard that the foe were to raise the hull of the “mer-ri-mac,” a fine craft which the foe had hurt and sunk at nor-folk. they would raise the ship, cov-er it with i-ron, and thus make a ves-sel which would be of far more use in war than an-y thing then built.
the as-sist-ant-sec’y of the na-vy, mr. gus-ta-vus v. fox, went to talk with the pres-i-dent. lin-coln spoke to him a-bout the new craft and said:
“we must not let the foe get a-head of us in such an im-por-tant thing as pla-ting ves-sels with i-ron.”
this thought sank deep in-to the mind of mr. fox, and plans were soon set on foot to see what could be done to get some “i-ron-clads.” capt. er-ics-son made a mod-el of a craft ne’er be-fore seen. it had a hull un-der wa-ter, and an i-ron-clad tur-ret which could be turned.
the pres-i-dent was glad of er-ics-son’s work, took the plans, and eight months lat-er the worth of the boat made from them was seen in the great fight be-tween
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the mer-ri-mac and the mon-i-tor at hamp-ton roads. the “mer-ri-mac” thought she would have full swing and crush all the ships of the un-ion. she did some sad work both in the loss of ships and men, and she would have made an end of all, had there not, at mid-night, come up-on the scene, straight down from new york, john er-ics-son’s lit-tle i-ron ves-sel, the “mon-i-tor.” from that time i-ron ships, in place of those made of wood, were made for war use.
in the west, grant, when he got through with don-el-son, went up the ten-nes-see to take cor-inth in north mis-sis-sip-pi. at that place man-y rail-roads met. fresh troops had been sent from the east, and as grant moved on with them he left some at points where boats could land. he, him-self, came to a halt on the west bank of the stream, at shi-loh, with 30,000 to 40,000 men. this was a good place for him, for from here he could keep watch on the rail-road that went through the south and thus vex the foe then in great force at cor-inth.
the foe had, at its head, gen. a. s. john-ston and it was his wish to crush grant ere bu-ell could send him more troops.
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shi-loh, a small log church, was on a ridge a few miles back from pitts-burg land-ing. the troops that were to be put in front had their lines drawn up to face the cor-inth road, for by that route the foe must come. gen. sher-man had charge of the men on that line.
the church at shiloh.
it was on a-pril 6th, 1862, that gen. a. s. john-ston made a fierce at-tack on the lines at shi-loh. there was great loss on both sides. sher-man was twice shot, while horse af-ter horse fell un-der him, but he stuck to his work, and kept up the hearts of his men.
the next day the fight went on a-gain and ground was won and lost on both sides. new troops, which had come in the night to the boys in blue, gave them much hope and did fine work. at last it was push,
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push, the foe back so that they could gain no more ground. this went on, till, at three o’clock the cry of “charge!” rang out up-on the air. with loud cheers, and their guns held in front of them, the un-ion troops made a bold brave dash and drove the foe from the field.
the last charge at shiloh.
the loss was great on both sides. when the foe lost their lead-er, gen. a. s. john-ston, they lost heart, and be-ing much worn by hours of dire work, had to give up.
af-ter shi-loh, a move was made a-gainst cor-inth,
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a-bout 22 miles off. word had gone forth that beau-re-gard had a large force of south-ern troops with him at that place, but when the un-ion ar-my came close, the foe fled from it, and left most of it in flames. when the un-ion troops came, it was found that a brave show had been made with a lot of old guns made of wood, in the place of the i-ron sort which could do harm.
southern troops leaving corinth.
the un-ion cause, by this last step, held the mis-sis-sip-pi riv-er as far down as vicks-burg.
pres-i-dent lin-coln’s heart was glad at the strong work in the west, the news of which came to him but a few weeks af-ter he had heard from the south that ad-mir-al far-ra-gut and gen. but-ler held the cit-y of new or-leans.
far-ra-gut then went up the mis-sis-sip-pi as far as vicks-burg and it was thought then that the whole riv-er would soon be held by un-ion for-ces.
the gains by the boys in blue at that time made a stir in the south and then it was that each man who could bear arms had to take part in the war.
the men who led the troops of the south did strong work for their cause. in 1861 there were fights big and small and most of these were won by the south. in
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1862 the war went on and the north won some hard fights, though at times there were great loss-es and dark days. the south bore up well, and though crops were poor, and they could not get goods, still they fought as brave-ly as ev-er, and felt that they should at last win. in vir-gin-ia, the foe had some grand men to lead them, and for a time it seemed as if they must win.
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they were bound to-geth-er with strong ties, and heart, head, and hand, each, did its best.
when lin-coln came to be pres-i-dent it was well known that he had a great dis-like to sla-ver-y. but the war, as he said, time af-ter time, was “not fought to put down sla-ver-y but to save the un-ion.” at the north man-y found fault with lin-coln be-cause he did not make haste to set the slaves free. the pres-i-dent plain-ly said, “if i could save the un-ion, though i did not free a slave i would do it. still, in my own heart it is my wish, that all men, in all lands, should be free.” lin-coln tried hard to keep the bor-der states friend-ly to the un-ion cause. one way that would have made them foes would have been to free the slaves at once.
one day, while sail-ing down the po-to-mac riv-er, en route to the ar-my for a vis-it, the pres-i-dent wrote out some thoughts on this theme which had been in his mind for a long time. then, when con-gress had made an end of its work, af-ter hav-ing passed an act “tak-ing a-way the prop-er-ty” of the foe, there was a meet-ing of the cab-i-net, made up of men who were a help to the pres-i-dent.
slaves were “prop-er-ty” and as prop-er-ty was to be
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seized, slaves, of course, could be tak-en. they were at that time at work as team-sters and on forts. why, then, would it not be a good time to give them their free-dom? with this ques-tion in his mind, the pres-i-dent went to his desk and took from it a pa-per which he then read to his “cab-i-net.” it said; “on and af-ter the first day of jan-u-a-ry, 1863, all slaves with-in a-ny state or states where the con-sti-tu-tion-al au-thor-i-ty of the u-ni-ted states shall not be re-cog-nized, sub-mit-ted to, and main-tained, shall thence-for-ward and for-ev-er be free.”
the pres-i-dent told those to whom he had read his “draft” that he had not called them to ask their ad-vice but to place the mat-ter be-fore them.
the wise se-cret-a-ry sew-ard said that though he was in fa-vor of such a draft, he thought the time was not ripe for it. he thought it would be best to wait un-til the troops had won more fights. it was then de-cid-ed that at least some months should go by ere this “draft” should be made known.
