under control before the close of the year.

General Butler was relieved of the command of New Orleans by General Banks, December 16th.

The account of one more battle will end the record for the year 1862. General Rosecrans had taken the sadly demoralized army of the Cumberland, and thoroughly reorganized and disciplined it. It was in the vicinity of Bowling Green when he took command. Bragg had a large force at Stone River, near Murfreesborough, and was preparing to annihilate the Union army. A most sanguinary conflict was begun there on the 31st of December, and was fought all day. At night the Unionists were so completely overcome that Bragg expected that they would see safety in flight during the darkness, but to his astonishment they were still in his front, ready to renew the encounter. The contest was fierce and sharp, and the day seemed to be irretrievably lost to the North, when a charge of seven regiments under the leadership of Brigadier-General W. B. Harzen, sent the Confederate lines. flying in confusion, and won the prize of victory from the very teeth of defeat. Bragg retreated to Chattanooga, and Rosecrans held possession of Murfreesborough.

Thus begins the year 1863, with a decided and a glorious victory for the Nationals on the field of battle; but there was a moral victory also won on this day, which decided the fate of the country for future generations.

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.

THE National Government had disavowed any intention to make war upon slavery in the States where it existed. The contest was for the supremacy of the Nation, and the enforcement of its laws and Constitution. There came a mighty revolution of feeling among those in the North, who had sympathized with the peculiar institution of the South. They came to see that this institution was the fundamental cause of the insurrection, and at the same time a means of prolonging the strife. The negroes could plant, gather the crops, and attend to domestic affairs, while the white men were doing military duty. The course of many of the Northern generals in returning the fugitive slaves who came into their lines, was very unpopular.

The Republican party in Congress was pressing upon the attention of President Lincoln the importance of emancipating the slaves held by those who were fighting the national government. Congress had abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, and on the 22d of September, Abraham Lincoln on the authority of Congress, issued a preliminary proclamation, in which he

declared his purpose to issue a Proclamation of Emancipation on the first day of January, 1863, forever setting free the slaves of all men found that day in open rebellion against the United States. The Confederates sneered at this, and their Northern sympathizers, of whom there were some still remaining, called it a "Pope's Bull against a Comet."

The war went on, as we have seen, prosecuted with vigor on both sides. The dawn of the New Year came, and "THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION" was issued under the seal of the United States. The friends of freedom hailed it all over the world as the harbinger of success to the North. At once the fetters were stricken from over three millions of human beings, and they were free before the law to enter the union lines, and as fast as new territory in the South was occupied by Union arms they were set at liberty. It was a severe blow to the South, and took away their hope, but it allied all the real friends of human liberty in the world to the cause of the Union. While the North was engaged in this work, the Confederacy was engaged in extensive preparations to destroy the commerce and the power of the nation. Privateers, built in British shipyards, equipped with British guns and seamen, and fitted out in British waters, were sent to prey upon American commerce, with the "stars and bars" flying at their peak. When the people of New York heard the cry of the starving operatives at Manchester, England, whose supply of cotton had been cut off by the blockade of the South, they sent a ship-load of provisions to aid them. This vessel, laden with the voluntary bounty of America to the starving citizens of England, was guarded upon her voyage by an armed government vessel to preserve her from the piratical torch, lighted by British hands.

The course of Great Britain, during all the period of the Civil War in America, was a peculiarly inconsistent one. With the proud boast that no slave could live under her flag, she hastened to recognize the belligerent rights of the "Confederate States," then holding millions of human beings in bondage, gave the moral aid of her indifference and apathy if not support to acts of illegality, and stultified herself in regard to her national policy of eighty years on the question of neutrality; she gave a ready market to the bonds of the "Confederate States," and sheltered and abetted the enemies of a country with which she was at peace, and furnished ships, munitions of war, and men to fight against the same country. All this for the sake of aiding a cause avowedly resting upon slavery as its chief cornerstone, for her supposed commercial advantage.

The Confederate privateer Alabama, the principal one of the craft fitted out by the British, committed fearful depredations on American commerce during the last ninety days of the year 1862.

THE MILITARY OPERATIONS OF 1863.

WE will open the account of the year with the operations on the Mississippi. A portion of this great river was still in the hands of the Confederates, from Vicksburg to Port Hudson. The Confederates had erected strong fortifications at the latter place, a distance of twenty-five miles from Baton Rouge. Grant had a large amount of supplies at Holly Springs, which, owing to the carelessness or something worse of the commandant there, fell into the hands of the Confederates December 20th. Grant was forced to fall back, and thus a large force of Confederates was able to come to Vicksburg. Sherman had planned to attack the city in the rear, but in an engagement on the Chickasaw Bayou was defeated with great loss December 28th, 1862. He was compelled to abandon that enterprise, and January 2d, 1863, he was superseded by General McClernand, who out-ranked him. About the middle of January the Confederate fort at Arkansas Post was captured and many supplies destroyed. Grant had come down the river from Memphis, and Vicksburg was placed under siege. The army was organized into four corps, and after a series of movements, which would in themselves fill a volume, he finally struck upon a plan which he followed to the end. Some of the naval feet ran down by Vicksburg to destroy the Confederate fleet below, but were themselves taken and destroyed. A strong force went down the west bank of the river in command of Generals McClernand and McPherson, in the direction of New Carthage. Porter determined to run by the batteries at Vicksburg, and succeeded in doing so with most of his fleet and transports on the 16th of April. On the 22d six transports accomplished the same feat, and now Grant prepared for a vigorous attack upon the flank and rear of the city. A most wonderful cavalry raid under Colonel Grierson through the very heart of Mississippi had assured Grant that the bulk of the Southern army of that region was in Vicksburg.

Porter attacked and again ran by the batteries of Vicksburg April 29th, and on May 1st Grant's troops gained a victory at Port Gibson. Sherman joined the Union army May 8th. The Confederates were defeated near Raymond, May 12th, and again at Jackson May 14th. The Confederates were

driven northward and another victory was gained for the Union army at Champion Mills. On the 16th and 17th Grant drove them from Big Black River, and on the 19th he had the whole Confederate army penned up at Vicksburg. He had lived off the enemy's country for two weeks, in which time his army had gained repeated victories. The very day on which he arrived before Vicksburg Grant made an assault, but was repulsed. This he followed up with another unsuccessful attempt on the 22d. Then he settled down to a regular siege of the city, for forty days, pouring shot and shell into the beleaguered town dạy and night. The citizens were safe only in caves which they dug in the banks of the hills with which the city abounds. The army and people were reduced to the verge of starvation and were in great distress. They were driven to the necessity of eating mule meat. Fourteen ounces of food for two days was the extent of the ration issued. General Pemberton, the Confederate Commander-in-chief at Vicksburg, gave up all hope of being relieved by Johnston, who he thought would strike in Grant's rear, and on the morning of July 3d he sent proposals to surrender. The formal surrender was made on the fourth of July, and there was great rejoicing, for on the same day another hard-fought battle was won in the East. Twenty-seven thousand stand of arms were taken and the strongest fortified post on the Mississippi fell into the hands of the Unionists.

Port Hudson, which had been bravely besieged by General Banks for forty days, surrendered on the 9th.

We will recount the doings of Banks in the Lower Mississippi Gulf region prior to this. He had sent troops to the support of the Union forces at Galveston, Texas, but the Confederate General Magruder had repulsed them and retaken the city. This was a barren victory to the Confederates, for Admiral Farragut maintained a strict blockade over that port. After this a land and naval force was sent into the Teche region, and made a successful expedition to repossess the western part of Louisiana. An expedition up the Red River under Banks penetrated the country as far as Alexandria, where the general proclaimed that all Southern and Western Louisiana was free from Confederate rule. With this impression he led his troops to Port Hudson and invested that point. He made an assault on this fortress on May 29th, but was repulsed with much loss. The siege went on for forty days, and after Vicksburg fell into the hands of the Unionists, the Confederates saw that it would be useless to try to hold out longer and capitulated. Now the river was open to the sea, and the Confederacy was severed in two

parts.

The blow was a severe one, and the wiser men of the Confederacy saw that their cause was hopeless from this point in the contest.

We left the army of the Potomac in winter-quarters at the opening of the year, Major-General Joseph Hooker in command. There followed a period of three months in which he was busily engaged in re-organizing that army. A large number of officers and men were absent from their regiments. There were officers who were opposed to the Government's policy on the question of slavery, and many were crying out it is a "war for the negro" and not a "war for the union." These men were removed, and their places were filled by energetic men in full sympathy with the administration. Order and discipline became thoroughly established, and Hooker had over one hundred thousand available troops on the first day of April. The period of rest and reformation of the army had done much to add to its tone and strength. During this same time General Lee had been engaged in strengthening the army of Northern Virginia. A rigid conscription act had been enforced and all the available men were hurried into the ranks. He had made the defenses of Richmond almost impregnable, and with wonderful energy and skill had put his army into the best condition for the coming struggle. In April, Lee had a well-organized and enthusiastic army of more than sixty thousand men. A part of his army under Longstreet were in South-eastern Virginia, but Lee was behind the strong fortifications and able to cope with a much superior force.

Early in April Hooker determined to make an advance upon Richmond. He threw a mounted force of ten thousand men in the rear of Lee's army, and moved with another large force to Chancellorsville, within ten miles of Fredericksburg. The left wing of Hooker's army, consisting of the First, Third, and Sixth Corps, was near Fredericksburg, under General Sedgwick, and by their demonstration on the Confederate front so completely deceived General Lee that Hooker was well on the way before Lee was aware of his real design. But Lee did not turn back to Richmond, as Hooker thought he would when he discovered his peril, but pushed the column of Stonewall Jackson forward, and compelled Hooker to fight at Chancellorsville, with his army divided. There was great peril for both armies. The bloody battle of Chancellorsville was fought the 1st and 2d of May, and resulted in a bitter defeat for the Union army. The struggle was severe and sanguinary, and Hooker's army was driven back on the road leading to the Rapidan and the Rappahannock. Lee's forces were united, but Hooker's were divided. Sedg