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and valuables were thrown from upper windows; women, in terror, fled away, and a mob hastened to plunder the abandoned Confederate stores." Foote, with his gunboats, descended the Mississippi, and, aided by General Pope, captured Island No. 10, one of the strongest of the Confederate posts. A short time after, Memphis was taken, the flotilla of gunboats for its protection having been defeated "in a contest resembling in many particulars the naval combats of ancient times." The successes of the Union fleet were stopped at Vicksburg, which was very strongly fortified.

Battle

15. Grant's army, after the victory at Fort Donelson, proceeded up the Tennessee river, by direction of General Halleck, the commander of the Western Department; and Pittsburg Landing, a steamboat station on the west of Shiloh. bank of the river, was occupied. The encampment extended along the road to Corinth, on the right and left of a little log building known as Shiloh Church. Here, on the morning of the 6th of April, Grant was attacked by a large force under General A. S. Johnston, and, after a contest which raged till near nightfall, the Union troops were driven to the river, where they were protected by the gunboats. Johnston was killed. The next day, reinforcements having arrived for Grant, the Confederates, commanded by Beauregard, were in turn driven from their position and compelled to retreat (April 7th, 1862).

A

16. The Union cause was also successful in Louisiana. naval expedition, commanded by Captain (afterwards Commodore) Farragut, including a flotilla of armed steamers and Taking of mortar boats, under the orders of Captain Porter, New Orleans sailed from the Atlantic coast and entered the Mississippi, the great object of the expedition being the capture of New Orleans. About thirty miles above the mouth of the river were two forts, which, in the estimation of the Confederates, were the main defense of the city. For six days the fleet poured an incessant fire upon these forts, which was responded to with vigor. "At last Farragut

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Taking of New Orleans.

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resolved to run by them. It was a hazardous undertaking. As the fleet advanced in order, and approached the forts, each boat delivered a terrific fire, and shot and shell belched forth from scores of guns. A dozen thunder storms never roared more terrifically than did the peal of hostile cannon. Still the gallant fleet kept on and passed the forts. Just then it was attacked by more than a dozen Confederate steamers, and such a naval battle ensued as baffles all description. Suddenly the foremost Federal vessels were in the midst of the Confederate fleet. Some of the latter's boats were rams, and they came rushing down the stream at full speed, butting into the Union fleet, singling out boats which they designed to sink, and then dashing into them with fury. The noise was awful. The guns in the fleets and forts, belching forth at once, together with the explosion of boilers and magazines, and the shrieks of scalded and wounded men, made an appalling noise. And then, too, steamboats were ablaze; and a huge fire-raft, ploughing and cracking through the fleet, and setting fire to Farragut's flagship, added terror to the scene. It seemed as if both fleets must perish together in the deadly contest. But the victory was Farragut's, and he pushed on for New Orleans."

17. The people of that city were thrown into " a panic as soon as they learned that the Union fleet had passed the forts and destroyed their gunboats. They ran hither and thither in the streets, frantic with fright and madness; and sugar, molasses, cotton, and other articles of merchandise, were destroyed by them in large quantities. Gold and silver coin was taken from the banks and carried away. In the midst of a thunder storm, Farragut anchored his squadron off New Orleans'' (April 25th), and, a few days later, General

'Meanwhile important successes attended the efforts of the Unionists on the Atlantic coast. A land and naval expedition captured Roanoke island. Elizabeth city was also captured, after a flotilla for its defense was destroyed; a victory was gained at Newbern; and Fort Pulaski, defending Savannah, was another Union trophy.

Butler, who had remained near the bombarded forts and completed their reduction, entered the city and placed it under martial law. Butler found it no easy task to govern the city, but by severity he put down the mob. He cleaned the streets, enforced sanitary regulations, and kept out Jellow fever."

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18. While disaster was thus attending the Confederate cause in Louisiana, an event occurred at the east which gave new life to it. At the breaking out of the war, the steam Attack of frigate Merrimac, one of the finest vessels in the the Virginia. American navy, costing more than a million of dollars, was lying in the harbor of Norfolk, Virginia. As elsewhere stated, the Union officers in charge there destroyed a large amount of property, in order to prevent its falling into the hands of the Confederates. They undertook to destroy the Merrimac, but only partially succeeded. The vessel was sunk, but her hull and machinery were not much injured. The Confederates, after taking possession of Norfolk and its navy yard, raised her without difficulty, cut down her hull almost to the water's edge, and covered it with a thick plating of iron. A new name was then given to herthe Virginia. This vessel, on the 8th of March, steamed out from Norfolk, and destroyed the Federal ships of war Cumberland and Congress, which, unprepared for an encounter with such vessels, could make no effectual resistance. Only the coming on of night prevented the destruction of the beautiful frigate Minnesota, and other national vessels; and it was anticipated that on the next day the iron-clad monster would complete her work.

19. In the early part of the night, however, a newlyinvented floating battery, called the Monitor,' arrived from

1 This vessel was designed and built at New York by Captain Ericsson. She was about one hundred and seventy feet long, and as, owing to the great weight of iron on her surface, she projected but slightly above the water, she looked like a raft bearing a round turret about twenty feet in diameter and nine feet high. She was covered with nine-inch plates of iron, and was worked by a steam-engine entirely protected from the assailant's shot.

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Battle of the Iron Ships.

She

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Battle of the iron ships.

New York. "In the bright morning of the following day, Sunday, the Virginia was seen rounding the point of land at the mouth of the Elizabeth river. approached the Minnesota; but, lying near that vessel, which was still stranded and supposed to be doomed, was a curious object, which some of the crew of the Virginia, straining their eyes, compared to a prodigious 'cheese-box on a plank.' It was another iron-clad-an experiment in naval

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architecture, which had come just in time to match the Confederate curiosity in floating batteries. The new actor on the scene which had come in such a dramatic coincidence was a defensive structure, different in appearance from any vessel that had previously been used in war. Her deck, protected by any bulwark, rose about two feet above the water, whilst from it projected a turret about nine feet high, and a small box-looking place at the stern, used as a pilot-house. In the turret she carried her sole armament, two heavy guns.

20. The two strange combatants approached each other; and when within about one hundred yards' distance the Monitor opened fire. The contest continued for the space of two hours, the distance between the two vessels varying from half a mile to close quarters, in which they were almost side to side, belching out their fire, the heavy blows on the iron sides of each being the only effect of the terrific cannonade. The strange-looking battery, with its black, revolving cupola, was more easily turned than the Virginia, and had the greater speed. The great length and draft of the Virginia rendered it exceedingly difficult to work her. Once, in changing her position, she got aground, but succeeded in getting off again, and, turning rapidly towards the Monitor, steamed directly at her, hoping with her terrible armed prow, to end the contest. But the blow was not fairly given, and merely scraped the iron plates of her antagonist." At last the Virginia, in a disabled condition, steamed back to Norfolk.

The

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21. In the meantime, a vast army had been collected near Washington, under McClellan, the object of which was to capture the Confederate capital. Early in March an advance was ordered. McClellan embarked his troops for Peninsula Fortress Monroe, whence he commenced his march campaign. up the peninsula between the York and James "On to Richmond," was at that time, a war-cry of the northern people, "not because Richmond was a source of strength to the Confederacy, not because it offered any historical recollections, not because it was the emblem of a nationality, but because it was in the eyes" of the people loyal to the Union," a token of defiance to the" North. As McClellan's plan of operations would leave Washington without adequate protection, Lincoln detained an army corps, under McDowell, for its security. It was expected that McClellan would make a rapid march against Richmond; but instead of this, the whole month of April was consumed in throwing up earthworks. The Confederates, having abandoned their works and fallen back, an advance column,

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