The Battle of New Orleans.The Battle of New Orleans.
Some of you may have heard that Jackson's men fought behind cotton bales. That is not quite true, but he was in such a hurry in building his breastworks that he did put in them some bales of cotton taken from the warehouses. The British, who were in as great a hurry, built a breastwork of sugar hogsheads which they found on the plantations. But the cannon balls soon set the cotton on fire and filled the air with flying sugar, so the bales and the hogsheads had to be pulled out. It was found that cotton and sugar, while good enough in their place, were not good things to stop cannon balls.
Soon the British marched against the American works, and there was a terrible fight.
"Stand to your guns, my men," said Jackson to his soldiers. "Make every shot tell. Give it to them."
Many of the men were old hunters from Tennessee, some of whom could hit a squirrel in the eye, and when they fired the British fell in rows. Not a man could cross that terrible wall of fire, and they fought on until twenty-six hundred of them lay bleeding on the field, while only eight Americans were killed.
That ended the battle. The men were not born who could face a fire like that. It ended the waralso, and it was the last time Americans and Englishmen ever fought each other. Jackson became the hero of the country, and he was finally elected President of the United States. I cannot say that he was well fitted to be President. He was a very obstinate man, who always wanted to have his own way, and that is better in a soldier than in a President. But he was one who loved his country, and when one of the states of the South sought to secede from the Union, Jackson, though he was a son of the South himself, quickly gave the seceders to understand that he was a general as well as a President, and that no state should leave the ranks of the Union while he marched at its head.
I HAVE told you the story of more than one war. I shall have to tell you now about still another in which the Americans fought the Mexicans in Texas.
I suppose you know that Texas is one of our states, and the largest of them all. That is, it is largest in square miles; not in number of people. In former times it was part of Mexico, and was a portion of what is called Spanish America. But there came to be more Americans in it than Spaniards. People kept going there from the United States until it was much more of an American than a Spanish country.
General Santa Anna, who was at the head of the Mexican government at the time I speak of, was somewhat of a tyrant, and he tried to rule the people of Texas in a way they would not submit to. Then he ordered them to give up all their guns to his soldiers, but instead of that they took their guns and drove the Mexican soldiers away. After that there was war, as you might well suppose, for a Mexican army was sent to punish the Texans.
I wish now to tell you about what happened to some very brave Americans. There were only one hundred and seventy-five of them, and they were attacked by General Santa Anna with an army of several thousand men. But they were commanded by Colonel Travis, a brave young Texan, and among them was the famous David Crockett, a great hunter, and Colonel James Bowie, who invented the terrible "bowie-knife," and other bold and daring men who had settled in Texas. They had made a fort of an old Spanish building called the Alamo.
The kind of men I have named do not easily give up. The Mexicans poured bomb-shells and cannon balls into their fort, battering down the walls and killing many of them, but they fought on like tigers, determined to die rather than surrender. At length so many of them were dead that there were not enough left to defend the walls, and the Mexican soldiers captured the Alamo. The valiant Crockett kept on fighting, and when he fell, the ground before him was covered with Mexican dead. Then Santa Anna ordered his soldiers to shoot down all that were left. That is what is called the "Massacre of the Alamo."
It was not long before the Americans had their revenge. Their principal leader was a bold and able man named Samuel Houston. He had less than eight hundred men under him, but hemarched on the Mexicans, who had then about eighteen hundred men.
"Men, there is the enemy," said brave General Houston. "Do you wish to fight?"
"We do," they all shouted.
"Charge on them, then, for liberty or death! Remember the Alamo!"
"Remember the Alamo!" they cried, as they rushed onward with the courage of lions.
In a little time the Mexicans were running like frightened deer, and the daring Texans were like deer hounds on their tracks. Of the eighteen hundred Mexicans all but four hundred were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners, while the Americans lost only thirty men. They had well avenged the gallant Travis and the martyrs of the Alamo.
The cruel Santa Anna was taken prisoner. He had only one sound leg, and the story was that he was caught with his wooden leg stuck fast in the mud. Many of the Texans wanted to hang him for his murders at the Alamo, but in the end he was set free.
All this took place in 1835. Texas was made an independent country, the "Lone Star Republic," with General Houston for President. But its people did not want to stand alone. They were American born and wished to belong to the United States. So this country was asked to accept Texasas a state of the Union. Nine years after it was accepted as one of the American states.
Perhaps some of my readers may think that this story has much more to do with the history of Mexico than that of the United States. But the taking of Texas as a state was United States history, and so was what followed. You know how one thing leads to another. Mexico did not feel like giving up Texas so easily, and her rulers said that the United States had no right to take it. It was not long before the soldiers of the two countries met on the border lands and blood was shed. There was a sharp fight at a place called Palo Alto, and a sharper one at a place called Resaca de la Palma. In both of them the Mexicans were defeated.
Congress then declared war against Mexico, and very soon there was hard fighting going on elsewhere. General Zachary Taylor, a brave officer, who had fought the Seminole Indians in Florida, led the American troops across the Rio Grande River into Mexico, and some time afterwards marched to a place called Buena Vista. He had only five thousand men, while Santa Anna was marching against him with twenty thousand—four to one. General Taylor's army was in great danger. Santa Anna sent him a message, asking him to surrender if he did not want his army cut to pieces; but Rough and Ready, asTaylor's men called him, sent word back that he was there to fight, not to surrender.
The battle that followed was a desperate one. It took place on February 23, 1847. The Mexican lancers rode bravely against the American lines and were driven back at the cannon's mouth. For ten long hours the fighting went on. The Mexicans gained the high ground above the pass and put the American troops in danger. Charge after charge was made, but like bulldogs the Yankee soldiers held their ground. On came the dashing Mexican lancers, shouting their war-cry of "God and Liberty," and charging a battery commanded by Captain Bragg. The lancers captured some of the guns and drove the soldiers back. Captain Bragg sent a messenger in haste to General Taylor, saying that he must have more men or he could not hold his ground.
"I have no more men to send you," said Rough and Ready. "Give them a little more grape, Captain Bragg."
The cannon were loaded with grape-shot and fired into the ranks of the enemy, cutting great gaps through them. Again and again they were loaded and fired, and then the fine Mexican cavalry turned and fled. They could not stand any more of Captain Bragg's grape.
That night both armies went to sleep on the field of battle. But when the next day dawned theMexicans were gone. Santa Anna had led them away during the night and General Taylor had won the greatest victory of the war. He received a noble reward for it, for the following year he was elected President of the United States.
The next thing done in this war was an attempt to capture the city of Mexico, the capital of the country. The easiest way to get there was by sea, for it was a long journey by land, so a fleet was got ready and an army sent south on the Gulf of Mexico. This army was led by General Winfield Scott, who had fought against the British in the War of 1812.
Onward they sailed till they came before the seaport city of Vera Cruz. This had a strong fort, which was battered for four days by the American cannon, when its walls were so shattered that the Mexicans gave it up. In this way a good starting-point was gained.
But I would have you all know that the Americans had no easy road before them. The city of Mexico lies in the center of the country on land that is as high as many mountains, and the way to it from the coast goes steadily upward, and has many difficult passes and rough places, where a small force might stop an army.
The Storming of Chapultepec.The Storming of Chapultepec.
If the Mexicans had known their business and had possessed good generals I am afraid the Americans might never have gotten up this ruggedroad. The Mexicans had men enough but they wanted able leaders. At one of the passes, named Cerro Gordo, Santa Anna waited with 15,000 men. The Americans had only 9,000. It looked as if they might have to turn back.
What did they do? Why, they managed to drag a battery to the top of a steep hill that overlooked the pass. And while these guns poured their shot down on the astonished Mexicans the army attacked them in front. In a few hours they were in full flight. Five generals, and 3,000 men were taken prisoners, and Santa Anna himself came so near being taken that he left his cork leg behind. Do you not think a general ought to have two good legs when he has to run as often as Santa Anna had?
Onward they marched until not very far away lay the beautiful city of Mexico. But here and there along the road were strong forts, and Santa Anna had collected a large army, three times as large as that of the Americans. You may see that General Scott had a very hard task before him. But there is one way to get past forts without fighting; which is, to go around them. This is what General Scott did. He marched to the south, and soon he was within ten miles of the capital without a battle.
August 20th was a great day for the American army. That day our brave troops fought likeheroes, and before night they had won five victories. One of these was on a steep hill called Churubusco, which they charged up in the face of the Mexican guns. Then on they went, and in a short time the old city, the most ancient in America, was in their hands. That ended the war. When peace was made the United States claimed the provinces of New Mexico and California, which had been captured by our soldiers, but for which Mexico was paid a large sum. No one then dreamed how rich the provinces were in silver and gold. Not long after the gold of California was discovered, and that country, which had been feebly held by a few Mexicans, was quickly filled by an army of gold-seekers. Since then it has proved one of the richest parts of the earth.
ALL of my young readers must know what a wonderful age this is that we live in, and what marvelous things have been done. Some of you, no doubt, have read the stories of magic in the "Arabian Nights Entertainments," and thought them very odd, if not absurd. But if any one, a hundred years ago, had been told about the railroad, the telegraph, the photograph, the phonograph, vessels that run beneath the surface of the water, and ships that sail in the air, I fancy they would have called all this nonsense and "Arabian Nights" magic. Why, think of it, a trolley car is as magical, in its way, as Aladdin's wonderful lamp.
But while you know much about these things, there has been one great step of progress which, I fancy, you know or think very little about. I do not mean material but moral progress, for you must bear in mind that while the world has been growing richer it has also been growing better.
A hundred years ago many millions of men were held as slaves in America and Europe.Some of these were black and some were white, but they could be bought and sold like so many cattle, could be whipped by their masters, and had no more rights than so many brute beasts.
To-day there is not a slave in Europe or America. All these millions of slaves have been set free. Do you not think I am right in saying that the world has grown better as well as richer? Why, fifty years ago there were millions of slaves in our own country, and now there is not one in all the land. Is not that a great gain to mankind? But it is sad to think that this slavery gave rise to a terrible war. I shall have to tell you about this war, after I have told you how slavery brought it on.
In the early part of this book you read of how white men first came to this country. I have now to tell you that black men were brought here almost as soon. In 1619, just twelve years after Captain John Smith and the English colonists landed at Jamestown, a Dutch ship sailed up the James River and sold them some negroes to be held as slaves.
You remember about Pocahontas, the Indian girl who saved the life of Captain John Smith. She was afterwards married to John Rolfe, the man who first planted tobacco in Virginia. John Rolfe wrote down what was going on in Virginia, and it was he who told us about these negroesbrought in as slaves. This is what he wrote:
"About the last of August came in, a Dutch marine-of-war, that sold us 20 Negars."
These twenty "Negars," as he called them, grew in numbers until there were four million negro slaves in our country in 1860, when the war began. There are twice that many black people in the country to-day, but I am glad to be able to say that none of them are slaves. Yet how sad it is to think that it cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, and misery to multitudes of families, to set them free.
"Where did all these black men come from?" I am sure I hear some young voice asking that question. Well, they came from Africa, the land of the negroes. In our time merchant ships are used to carry goods from one country to another. In old times many of these ships were used in carrying negroes to be sold as slaves. The wicked captains would steal the poor black men in Africa, or buy them from the chiefs, who had taken them prisoners in war. Some of them filled their ships so full of these miserable victims that hundreds of them died and were thrown overboard. Then, when they got to the West Indies or to the shores of our country, they would sell all that were left alive to the planters, to spend the rest of their lives like oxen chained to the yoke.
It was a very sad and cruel business, but peoplethen thought it right, and some of the best men took part in it. That is why I say the world has grown better. We have a higher idea of right and wrong in regard to such things than our forefathers had.
Slaves were kept in all parts of the country, in the North as well as the South. There were more of them in the South than in the North, for they were of more use there as workers in the tobacco and rice and cotton fields. Most of those in the North were kept as house servants. Not many of them were needed in the fields.
The North had not much use for slaves, and in time laws were passed, doing away with slavery in all the Northern states. Very likely the same thing would have taken place in the South if it had not been for the discovery of the cotton-gin. I have told you what a change this great invention made. Before that time it did not pay to raise cotton in our fields. After that time cotton grew to be a very profitable crop, and the cultivation of it spread wider and wider until it was planted over a great part of the South.
This made a remarkable change. Negroes were very useful in the cotton fields, and no one in the South now thought of doing away with slavery. After 1808 no ships could bring slaves to this country, but there were a great many here then, and many others were afterwards born andgrew up as slaves, so that the numbers kept increasing year after year.
There were always some people, both in the North and the South, who did not like slavery. Among them were Franklin and Washington and Jefferson and other great men. In time there got to be so many of these people in the North that they formed what were called Anti-slavery Societies. Some of them said that slavery should be kept where it was and not taken into any new states. Others said that every slave in the United States ought to be set free.
This brought on great excitement all over the country. The people in the North who believed in slavery were often violent. Now and then there were riots. Buildings where Anti-slavery meetings were held were burned down. One of the leaders of the Abolitionists, as the Anti-slavery people were called, was dragged through the streets of Boston with a rope tied round his body, and would have been hanged if his friends had not got him away.
But as time went on the Abolitionists grew stronger in the North. Many slaves ran away from their masters, and these were hidden by their white friends until they could get to Canada, where they were safe. All through the South and North people were excited.
I do not think many of our people expected thecruel war that was coming. If they had they might have been more careful what they said and did. But for all that, war was close at hand, and two things helped to bring it on.
There had been fighting in Kansas, one of the territories that was to be made into a state, and among the fighters was an old man named John Brown, who thought that God had called him to do all he could for the freedom of the slaves.
Some people think that John Brown was not quite right in his brain. What he did was to gather a body of men and to take possession of Harper's Ferry, on the Potomac River, where there was a government army. He thought that the slaves of Virginia would come to his aid in multitudes and that he could start a slave war that would run all through the South.
It was a wild project. Not a slave came. But some troops came under Colonel Robert E. Lee, and Brown and his party were forced to surrender. Some of them were killed and wounded and the others taken prisoners. John Brown and six others were tried and hanged. But the half-insane old man had done his work. That fight at Harper's Ferry helped greatly to bring on the war.
I said there were two things. The other was the election of Abraham Lincoln as President.
For a long time, as I have told you, the Abolitionists,or people opposed to slavery, were few in number. When they grew more numerous they formed a political party, known as the Anti-slavery Party. In 1856 a new party, called the Republican Party, was formed and took in all the Abolitionists. It was so strong that in the election of that year eleven states voted for its candidate, John C. Fremont, the man who had taken California from Mexico.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln, a western orator of whom I shall soon tell you more, was the candidate of the Republican Party, and in the election of that year this new party was successful and Lincoln was elected President of the United States.
I SHOULD like to tell you all about one of the greatest and noblest men who ever lived in our country, and give you his story from the time he was born until the time he died. But that would be biography, and this is a book of history. Biography is the story of a man; history is the story of a nation. So I cannot give you the whole life of Abraham Lincoln, but only that part of it which has to do with the history of our country.
Nations, you should know, are divided into monarchies and republics. In a monarchy the ruler is called a king, or some other name which means the same thing. And when a king dies his son takes his place as king. The king may be noble and wise, or he may be base and foolish; he may be a genius, or he may be an idiot, without any sense at all; he may be kind and just, or he may be cruel and unjust; but for all that he is king. There may be some good points in letting a man be born king, but you can see that there are many bad ones. The history of the nations hasoften shown this, as you may have seen in what we have said of some of the English kings who had to do with America.
In a republic the ruler—who is called president instead of king—is not born to his office, but is chosen by the people; and he cannot rule the nation all his life, but only for a few years. In that way the best and wisest man in the nation may be chosen as its ruler. We do not always get the best man in the United States; but that is the fault of the people, it is not the fault of the plan. There is one thing sure, we never get a fool or an idiot, as kingdoms sometimes do.
There are times when we do choose our best and wisest man, and everybody thinks we did so when we made Abraham Lincoln President. As I have told you, as soon as he was made President a great war began between the two halves of our people. It is not so easy to rule in war as in peace, and I must say that poor Lincoln had a very hard time of it. But he did the best he could, and people say now that no man in our nation could have done better. Abraham Lincoln stands next to George Washington among the great and noble men of America.
There is one more thing it is well to know. It is not only the rich and proud that we choose to be our Presidents. Many of them have begun life as poor boys, and none of them began poorerthan "honest Abe Lincoln," as the people he lived among called him. He well deserved this name, for he was always good and honest.
No doubt there are many poor boys among my readers, but I do not believe that any of you are as poor as was little Abe Lincoln, or have had as hard a life. So you see that while a king must have a king or great noble for father, a President may be the son of the poorest laborer. Any one of my young readers, if he can bring himself strongly to the notice of the people, may become President, and I should not wonder at all if some one among you should do so in future times.
I told you that I would not speak about Abraham Lincoln's early life, but I see that I shall have to do so. He was born in a mean little log-cabin in the back woods a hundred years ago, in the year 1809. His father could not read and did not like to work, and the poor little fellow had hardly enough to eat.
His mother loved him, but she could do little for him, and she died when he was only eight years old. Then his father married a second wife. She was a good woman, and she did all she could for the poor, forlorn little boy. But it did not look much then as if this ragged and hungry little chap would become President of the United States.
There was one good thing about little Abe, hehad a great love for books. He went to school only long enough to learn to read and write, but he borrowed and read all the books he could get. When he found he could not go to school he studied at home. He had no slate or pencil, so he studied arithmetic by the light of the kitchen fire, working out the problems on the back of a wooden fire shovel. When this was full he would scrape it off smooth and begin again. In this way the boy got to be the best scholar in all the country around him. How many of you would have worked as hard as he did to get an education? Yet it was this kind of work that made him President.
Lincoln knew how to make use of his learning. He was always a good talker, and he grew to be one of the best public speakers of his times. He became so well known and so well respected that at length he was sent to Congress. Lincoln did not believe that slavery was a good thing for the country, and was sure it was a wrong thing in itself. So he joined the Republican Party, which had just been formed.
There was another fine speaker in Illinois named Douglas, who had different ideas about slavery from Lincoln and was a member of the Democratic Party. Lincoln and Douglas went about Illinois making speeches to the people, and great crowds came to hear them, for they were two ofthe best speakers in the country. Everywhere people were talking about Lincoln and Douglas and saying what able men they were.
In 1860 came the time when a new President was to be chosen, and out of all the political leaders of the country these two men from far-west Illinois were selected—Douglas by those who were in favor of slavery and Lincoln by those who opposed slavery. When election day came round and the votes were counted, Abraham Lincoln, the rail splitter, was found to be elected President of the United States.
The people of the South were in a terrible state of mind when they found that a Republican, a man opposed to slavery, was elected President. They could not tell what would take place. The Abolitionists who were against slavery were in power and might pass laws that would rob them of all their slaves. For years they had been fighting the North in Congress—fighting by words, I mean. Now they determined to leave the Union, and to fight with swords and guns if the North would not let them go in peace. One by one the Southern States passed resolutions to go out of the Union. And on all sides they collected powder and balls and other implements of war, for their leaders felt sure they would have to fight. But Lincoln hoped the states would not quarrel. He begged them not to. But if theydid it was his duty to do what the people had put him there for. He had been elected President of the United States, and he must do all he could to keep these states united.
It was on the 4th of March, 1861, that Abraham Lincoln became President. By the middle of April the North and South were at war. Both sides had their soldiers in the field and fighting had begun. The South wanted to take Washington, and the North to keep it, and soon a fierce battle was fought at a place called Bull Run, a few miles south of Washington.
The Southern States formed a Union of their own, which was called the Southern Confederacy. They chose Richmond, the capital of Virginia, for the capital of the Confederacy, and chose Jefferson Davis for their President. Davis had fought bravely as a soldier at the battle of Buena Vista, in Mexico. And he had been long in Congress, where he showed himself an able lawmaker. So the South chose him as their best man for President.
The war was half over before President Lincoln did anything about slavery. He was there to save the Union, not to free the slaves. But the time came when he found that freeing the slaves would help him in saving the Union. When this time came—it was on the 1st of January, 1863—he declared that all the slaves shouldbe free. It was a great thing for this country, for it was clear that there could be no peace while slavery remained.
But the war went on more fiercely than ever, and it was not until April, 1865, that it came to an end. The South was not able to fight any longer and had to give up, and the Union was saved. It was saved without slavery, which was a very good thing for both North and South, as we have since found out.
But good and true Abraham Lincoln did not live to learn what the country gained by the war, for just after it ended he was killed by a wicked and foolish man, who thought he would avenge the South by shooting the President.
It was a terrible deed. The whole country mourned for its noblest man, slain in the hour of victory. The South as well as the North suffered by his death, for he was too just a man to oppress those who had been beaten in war, and in him all the people, North and South, lost their best and ablest friend.
I HAVE no doubt that some of the young folks who read this book will want to hear the story of the great war that was spoken of in the last chapter. Some of the boys will, at any rate. The girls do not care so much about war, and I am glad of this, for I think the world would be much better off if there were no wars.
Well, I suppose I shall have to tell the boys something about it. The girls can skip it, if they wish. To tell the whole story of our Civil War would take a book five times as large as this, so all I can do is to draw a sort of outline map of it. A civil war, you should know, means a war within a nation, where part of a people fight against the other part. A war between two nations is called a foreign war.
When our Civil War broke out we had thirty-three states—we have more than forty-five to-day. Eleven of these states tried to leave the Union and twenty-two remained, so that the Union states were two to one against the non-Union. But the Union states had more than twice thepeople and had ten times the wealth, so that, as you may see, the war was a one-sided affair. It was nearly all fought in the South, whose people suffered greatly for their attempt to leave the Union. Many of them lost all they had and became very poor.
There were three fields or regions in which this war took place. One of these was a narrow region, lying between Washington and Richmond, the two capital cities. But small as it was, here the greatest battles were fought. Both sides were fighting fiercely to save their capitals.
The second region of the war was in the West. This was a vast region, extending from Kentucky and Missouri down to the Gulf of Mexico. Here there were many long, weary marches and much hard fighting and great loss of life. The third region was on the ocean and rivers, where iron-clad ships first met in battle, and where some famous combats took place.
Over these three regions a million and more of men struggled for years, fighting with rifle and cannon, with sword and bayonet, killing and wounding one another and causing no end of misery in all parts of the land. For the people at home suffered as much as the men on the battle-field, and many mothers and sisters were heartbroken when word came to them that their dear sons or brothers had been shot down on the fieldof blood. War is the most terrible thing upon the earth, though men try to make it look like a pleasant show with their banners and trumpets and drums.
As soon as the news of the war came there was a great coming and going of soldiers, and beating of drums, and fluttering of banners, and making of speeches, and thousands marched away, some to Washington and some to Richmond, and many more to the strongholds of the West. Mothers wept as they bade good-by to their sons, whom they might never see again. And many of the soldier-boys had sad hearts under their brave faces. Soon hundreds of these poor fellows were falling dead and wounded on fields of battle, and then their people at home had good reason to weep and mourn.
I have told you about the battle of Bull Run, south of Washington, the first great battle of the war. Here the Southern army gained the victory, and the people of the South were full of joy. But Congress now called for half a million of men and voted half a billion of dollars. Both sides saw that they had a great war before them.
Bull Run was the only severe battle in 1861, but in 1862 both the North and the South had large armies, and there was much hard fighting in the East and the West.
I must tell you first of the fighting inVirginia.General George B. McClellan was in command of the Union army there. He led it down close to Richmond, which he hoped to capture. There was a sharp fight at a place called Fair Oaks, where General Joseph Johnston, the Confederate general, was wounded. General Robert E. Lee took his place. They could not have picked out a better man, for he proved himself to be one of the greatest soldiers of modern times.
The Confederates had another fine general named Thomas J. Jackson. He was called "Stonewall" Jackson, because, in the battle of Bull Run, some one had said:
"Look at Jackson! There he stands like a stone wall!"
General Lee and Stonewall Jackson were not the men to keep quiet. In a short time they drove McClellan back after a hard fight lasting a whole week, and then made a sudden march to the north. Here was another Union army, on the old battle-field of Bull Run. A dreadful battle followed; men fell by thousands; in the end the Union army was defeated and forced back towards Washington.
General Lee knew that he could not take Washington, so he marched away north, waded his men across the Potomac River, and entered the state of Maryland. This was a slave state, and he hoped many of the people would join his army. Butthe farmers of Maryland loved the Union too well for that, so General Lee got very few of them in his ranks.
Then he went west, followed by General McClellan, and at a place called Antietam the two armies met; and there was fought the bloodiest battle of the war. They kept at it all day long and neither side seemed beaten. But that night General Lee and his men waded back across the Potomac into Virginia, leaving McClellan master of the field. There was one more terrible battle in Virginia that year, in which General Burnside, who after McClellan commanded the Union army, tried to take the city of Fredericksburg, but was defeated and his men driven back with a dreadful loss of life.
Both armies now rested until the spring of 1863, and then another desperate battle was fought. General Hooker had taken General Burnside's place, and thought he also must fight a battle, but he did not dare to try Fredericksburg as Burnside had done, so he marched up the river and crossed it into a rough and wild country known as the Wilderness.
General Lee hurried there to meet him and the two armies came together at a place called Chancellorsville. They fought in the wild woods, where the trees in some places were so thick that the men could not see one another. But StonewallJackson marched to the left through the woods and made a sudden attack on the right wing of the Union army.
This part of the army was taken by surprise and driven back. Hooker's men fought all that day and the next, but they could not recover from their surprise and loss, and in the end they had to cross the river back again. General Lee had won another great victory. But Stonewall Jackson was wounded and soon died, and Lee would rather have lost the battle than to lose this famous general.
Do you not think the North had a right to feel very much out of heart by this time? The war had gone on for two years, and the Union army had been defeated in all the great battles fought in Virginia. The only victory won was that at Antietam in Maryland. They had been beaten at the two battles of Bull Run, the seven days' fight at Richmond, and the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, while the battle of Antietam had been won with great loss of life.
But there was soon to be a victory that would make up for more than one defeat. Shortly after the fight at Chancellorsville General Lee broke camp and marched north with the greatest speed. The Union army followed as fast as they could march, for there was danger of Baltimore or even Philadelphia being taken. Both armies kept onuntil they reached the town of Gettysburg, in the south of Pennsylvania. Here was fought the greatest battle of the war. It lasted for three days, the 1st, 2d and 3d of July, 1863.
The loss of life on both sides was dreadful. But the Confederates lost the most men and lost the battle besides. They tried in vain to break through the Union lines, and in the end they were forced to retreat. On the 4th of July General Lee sadly began his backward march, and the telegraph wires carried all through the North the tidings of a great victory. This was the turning point in the war. Six months before, President Lincoln had proclaimed the freedom of the slaves, and the armies were now fighting to make his word good. Negroes after this were taken into the Union ranks, that they might help in the fight for their own liberty.
I wish to say just here that the people of the North bore the defeats in Virginia better than you would think. They had good reason to, for while they had been losing battles in the East they had been winning battles in the West. So one helped to make up for the other. If you will follow me now to the West we will see what was taking place there.
The North did not have to change its generals as often in the West as in the East, for it soon found a good one; and it was wise enough to holdon to him. This was General Ulysses S. Grant, who is now honored as one of the greatest generals of the world's history.
Grant was only a captain at first. Then he was made a colonel, and was soon raised to the rank of general. He met the Confederates first at Belmont, Missouri. Here he was defeated, and had to take his men aboard river-boats to get them away. That was his first and nearly his last defeat.
The Confederates had built two strong forts in Kentucky which they named Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. General Grant marched against them with an army and Commodore Foote steamed against them with a fleet of iron-clad steamboats. Fort Henry was taken by the fleet before Grant could get to it. Then he marched across country to Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River. He attacked this fort so fiercely that the Confederates tried to get out of it but did not succeed. Then they proposed to surrender, and asked him what terms he would give them.
"No terms except an immediate and unconditional surrender," he said. "I propose to move immediately on your works."
This settled the matter. They surrendered—fifteen thousand in all. After that many said that U. S. Grant stood for "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.
I cannot tell you about all the fights that took place in the West, but there was a terrible battle at a place called Pittsburg Landing, which lasted two days, and in which Grant came very near being defeated. There was a severe one at Murfreesboro on the last day of the year, and another three days afterwards. Grant was not there, but Bragg, the Confederate General, was defeated.
The Confederates had an important stronghold on the Mississippi River at the city of Vicksburg, where they had many forts and a large number of cannon. General Sherman tried to capture these forts but was driven back. Then General Grant tried it and found it a very hard task.
The country was all swamp and creeks which no army could get through, so Grant at last marched south on the other side of the river, and then crossed over and marched north again. He had to fight every step of his way, and to live on the food his men could carry, for he had cut loose from the North. But he soon reached the city and began a long siege. The Confederates held out until all their food was gone, and until they had eaten up nearly all their horses and mules. Then they surrendered. Twenty-seven thousand men were taken prisoners.
This took place on the 4th of July, 1863, the same day that General Lee marched away from the field at Gettysburg. That was one of thegreatest Fourths of July this country had ever seen, for with it the last chance of the South was lost. General Lee had lost many thousands of his hardy veterans, men whom he could never replace. And in the fighting around Vicksburg and the capture of that city nearly fifty thousand more fell on the battle-field or were taken prisoners. It was a loss which the leaders of the Southern army bitterly felt. Fighting kept on for two years more, but they would have been wiser to give up then and save all the death and misery that came to them afterwards.
I HAVE told you part of the story of how our people fought on land. Now suppose we take a look at the water, and see how they fought there. Have any of you heard of the wonderful battle between the "Monitor" and the "Merrimac"? If you have you will be sure to remember it, for it is one of the strangest stories in the history of war. In the lower part of Chesapeake Bay is what I may call a pocket of water named Hampton Roads, into which the James River flows. Here, in the month of March, 1862, lay a fleet of war-vessels. These were not the kind of ships-of-war which we see now-a-days. They were wooden vessels, such as were used in former wars, but which would be of no more use than floating logs against the sea-monsters of to-day.
Something strange was soon to happen to these proud ships. On the 8th of March there came into the waters of the bay a very odd looking craft. It was a ship, but instead of a deck it had a sloping roof made of iron bars. It lookedsomething like a house gone adrift. I fancy the people in the wooden ships must have been a little scared when they saw it coming, for they had never seen a war-vessel with an iron roof before.
They might well be scared, for they soon found that their cannon were of no more use than pea-shooters against this queer craft. The cannon-balls bounded off from her sides like so many peas. On came the monster and struck one of the ships with her iron beak, tearing a great hole in its side. Down into the waters sunk the gallant ship, with all on board. And there it lay with its flag flying like a flag above a grave. Another ship, the "Congress," was driven on the mud and had to give up the fight.
There were three more ships in the fleet, but it was now near night, and so the "Merrimac," as the iron monster was called, steamed away. Her captain thought it would be an easy thing to settle with them the next morning, and very likely the people on them did not sleep well that night, for they could not forget what had happened to the "Congress" and the "Cumberland," and felt sure their turn was to come next.
But, as the old saying goes, "There is many a slip between cup and lip." The "Merrimac" was to learn the truth of this. For when she came grimly out the next day, expecting to sink the rest of the fleet and then steam up to the cityof Washington and perhaps burn that, her captain found before him the queerest thing in the shape of a ship he had ever seen. It was an iron vessel that looked like "a cheese box on a raft." All that could be seen was a flat deck that came just above the water, and above this a round tower of iron, out of which peeped two monsters of cannon.
This strange vessel had come into Hampton Roads during the night, and there it lay ready to do battle for the Union. It was a new style of war-ship that had been built in New York and was called the "Monitor."
The "Merrimac" soon had enough to keep herself busy, and was forced to let the wooden fleet alone. For four long hours these two iron monsters battered each other with cannon balls. Such a fight had never been seen before. It was the first time two iron-clad ships had met in war.
I cannot say that either ship was hurt much. The balls could not get through the iron bars and plates and glanced off into the water. But the "Merrimac" got the worst of it, and in the end she turned and hurried back to Norfolk, from which place she had come. The "Monitor" waited for her, but she never came out again. Soon afterwards the Confederates left Norfolk and sunk their iron ship, and that was the last of the "Merrimac."
When the news of this wonderful sea-fight got to Europe the kings and ministers of war read it with alarm. They saw they had something to do. Their wooden war-vessels were out of date, and they went to work in a hurry to build iron-clad ships. To-day all the great nations of the earth have fleets of steel-covered ships-of-war, and the United States has some of the best and strongest of this kind of ships.
All through the war there were battles of iron-clads. On the western rivers steamboats were plated with iron and attacked the forts on shore. And along the coast iron-clad vessels helped the wooden ships to blockade the ports of the South. More vessels like the "Monitor" were built in the North, and a number somewhat like the "Merrimac" were built in the South. I cannot say that any of them did much good either North or South.
A great naval battle was fought in the Mississippi, which led to the capture of New Orleans, and another was fought in the Bay of Mobile, on the Gulf of Mexico. Here there were some strong forts and a powerful iron-clad ship. Admiral Farragut sailed into the bay with a fleet of wooden ships and several iron vessels like the "Monitor." When he went past the forts he stood in the rigging of his ship, with his spy-glass in his hand. He did not seem to care anything for cannon-balls.He took the forts, and since then Farragut has been one of our great naval heroes.
There was one Confederate privateer, the "Alabama," which caused terrible loss to the merchants of the North. It took in all sixty-five vessels, which were set on fire and burned. In June, 1864, the "Alabama" was met near the coast of France by the frigate "Kearsarge," and a furious battle took place. For two hours they fought, and then the "Alabama" sagged down into the water and sank to the bottom of the sea. She had done much harm to the North, but her career was at an end.
Now let us turn back to the war on land and see what was going on there. I have told you the story of the fighting up to the great 4th of July, 1863, when Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant and General Lee marched away from Gettysburg. That is where we dropped the threads which we have now to take up again.
After Grant had taken Vicksburg and opened the Mississippi from St. Louis to its mouth, he set out for the town of Chattanooga, which is in Tennessee just north of Georgia. Here there had been a great battle in which the Confederate army won the victory, and the Union troops were shut up in Chattanooga with very little to eat.
Grant was not there long before there came a change. General Bragg, the Confederate commander,had his army on the summits of two mountains named Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. These were defended by strong forts. But the Union troops charged up the mountain sides in the face of the fire of rifles and cannon and soon had possession of the forts. General Bragg's army was defeated with great loss. This was one of the most brilliant victories of the war. The battle of Lookout Mountain has been called "the battle above the clouds."
Everybody now saw that General Grant was much the best general on the Union side, and President Lincoln made him commander-in-chief of all the armies in the field. Grant at once laid his plans to have the armies all work together. General Sherman was left in command of the army of the West and Grant came to Virginia to fight General Lee.
In the green month of May, 1864, all the armies were set in motion, and North and South came together for the last great struggle of the war.
Grant led his men into the Wilderness where General Hooker and his army had been sadly defeated the year before. Lee was there to meet him, and a great battle was fought in the depth of the woods and thickets. It lasted two whole days, but neither side won.
Then Grant marched towards Richmond and Lee hurried down to head him off. Several hardbattles were fought, the last being at Cold Harbor, near Richmond. Here the Union army lost terribly. Ten thousand men were killed and wounded, while the Confederates, who were behind strong earthworks, lost only a thousand.
General Grant saw he could not reach Richmond that way, so he crossed the James River and began a siege of Petersburg and Richmond. This siege lasted nine months, both sides digging instead of fighting till great heaps of earth were thrown up, on whose tops were hundreds of cannon.
General Grant kept his men very busy, as you may see. But General Sherman's men were just as busy. He marched south from Chattanooga, and fought battle after battle until he had gone far into Georgia and captured the important city of Atlanta. General Hood, the Confederate commander, then made a rapid march to Tennessee, thinking that Sherman would follow him. But Sherman did not move. The brave General Thomas was there to take care of Hood and his army.
"Let him go; he couldn't please me better," said Sherman.
What Sherman did was to cut loose from the railroads and telegraphs and march his whole army into the center of Georgia. For a whole month the people of the North heard nothing of him. His sixty thousand men might be starvingfor food, or might all be killed, so far as was known. It was November when they started and it was near Christmas when they were heard of again.
They had lived on the country and destroyed railroads and stores, and at length they came to the sea at the city of Savannah. Three daring scouts made their way in a boat down the river by night and brought to the fleet the first news of Sherman's march. No doubt you have heard the song "Marching through Georgia." That was written to describe Sherman's famous march.
The South was now getting weaker, and weaker, and most men saw that the war was near its end. It came to an end in April, 1865. Grant kept moving south till he got round the Confederate earthworks at Petersburg, and Lee was forced to leave Richmond in great haste.
The Union army followed as fast as it could march, and the cavalry rode on until it was ahead of the Confederates. Then General Lee saw that he was surrounded by an army far stronger than his own. He could fight no longer. His men were nearly starved. To fight would be to have them all killed. So on the 9th of April he offered his sword to General Grant, and the long and bloody war was at an end.
No one was gladder of this than President Lincoln, who had done so much to bring it about.Poor man! five days afterwards he was shot in a theatre at Washington by an actor named John Wilkes Booth. This was done out of revenge for the defeat of the South. But the people of the South did not approve of this act of murder, and in Abraham Lincoln they lost one whom they would have found a good friend.
Booth was followed and killed, but his death could not bring back to life the murdered President, whom the people loved so warmly that they mourned for him as if he had been, like Washington, the Father of his Country. It was a terrible crime, and it turned the joy which the people felt, at the end of the war, into the deepest sorrow and grief.