Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/901

CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 793 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. tured Fort Henry, on the Tonncsspe River, Febru- ary G; and ten days later Cioneral (irant at- tacked Fort Donelson. on the CumherUmd, which surrendered with nearly 15.000 i)risoncrs and 40 cannon. A naval expedition under general Burn- side and Commodore Goldsborough captured Ko- anoke Island. Xew Berne. X. ('., on February 8. On March 7-8 occurred the battle of Pea Ridge, in western Arkansas, in which the Federals under Gen. S. R. C^irtis det'eated the Confederates under Gen. Earl Van Dorn. On ilarch i) the Confed- erate ironclad Virrtinia (formerly the Mrrriiiuic] . after having on the jjreceding day inflicted great loss on the wooden vessels of the I'nion squadron in Hampton Roads, was herself defeated in a re- markable naval engagement In- the newly con- structed lloiiilor, under Worden. In the West the Xorthern campaign was directed toward opening the Mississippi, and toward cutting the Memphis-Charleston railroad line. In the course of the southward movement for the latter pur- pose. General Grant fought the great two days' battle of Shiloh (or of Pittsburg Landing), on the Tennessee River, April 0-7. On the first day the attack of the Confederates, under Generals A. S. Johnston ( who fell ) and Beauregard, threatened the destruction of the Union force, but on the second day Grant, reinforced by Buell, drove the enemy from the field. In this theatre of the war, at the close of the following month, the Federals, under Ilalleck, compelled the evacu- ation by Beauregard of the important strategic point of Corinth,, Miss. On April 8 General Pope and Commodore Foote captured Island Xo. 10 (q.v.), in the Mississippi River. Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, Ga., was bombarded and captured by Major Gillmore. April 11: and at the close of this month Xew Orleans' was captured bj- Far- ragut and occupied by Xorthern forces. The Army of the Potomac, which had devoted its time during the winter of 1861-02 to organization, moved early in the spring to the peninsula formed by the James and York rivers, and gained an equivocal success at Williamsburgh. Va., May 5. The army then advanced up the peninsula to the Chickahominy, and won the battle of Fair Oaks (Seven Pines 1, on Ma,v 31- June 1, against Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, but the approach of 'Stone- wall' Jackson, with a force fresh from a victo- rious advance through the Shenandoah Valley, to cooperate with Lee. made it necessary, in the judgment of ^IcClellan, to efTect a change of base to the James River ; and this hazardous movement was accomplished at the expense of some of the hardest-fought engagements of the war, known collectively as the Seven Days' Battles — those of Oak" Grove, June 25; Me- chanicsville. June 20; Gaines's Mill, June 27; Savage's Station. June 29; Frazier's Farm. June'30; and Malvern Hill, July 1. In July Halleck was appointed commander-in-chief of the I'nion armies, but he did not assume personal command. As a result of the peninsula move- ment and the 'change of base,' the advantage remained with the Confederates, who had .suc- cessfully defeated the original plan f<ir the cap- ture of Richmond by this route. The scene of the Eastern campaign was thus again shifted to northern Virginia, and on August 2n-.30 occurred the second battle of Bull Run (q.v.), between the Federal forces commanded by Gen. John Pope and the Confederates under Lee, Jackson, and Longstreet. Pope was utterly defeated, and his broken and dispirited columns were driven back vii)on Washington. Lee now undertook the inva- si(m of the I'nion territory, and crossed the Polo- mac into Maryland. ilcClellan encountered him successfully at South Mountain. September 14, and definitively checked his progress in the severe battle of Antietam, September l(i-17, forcing him to rcti'cat across the Potomac. Harper's Ferry, which had been evacuated by the Confederates in June, 1801, was recaptured by Stonewall Jack- son (q.v.), September 15, 1802, when 11,583 men and a great quantity of munitions of war fell into the hands of tlie Confederates. On Septem- >er 22 President Lincoln issued a proclamation decreeing the emancipation on Januarii' 1, 1863, of all slaves in the States which should till then continue in a state of rebellion. This was fol- lowed on January 1 by a proclamation definitively emancipating the slaves in the rebellious States. On Xovember 7, 1802, General McClel- lan was superseded in the command of the Army of the Potomac by General Burnside, against the wish of the latter, who was det'eated disastrously at Fredericksburg, Va., December 13. (See Fredekkksblho.) On .January 20, 1S63, General Burnside was relieved by General Hooker, who was defeated by Lee in a great battle at Chancellorsville (q.v. 1, on May 2-4. The death of Stonewall Jackson made the victory a dearly bought one for the Confederates. Lee fol- lowed up this success by invading Maryland again, and early in June entered Pennsylvania. On June 28 Hooker was relieved from the command of the Army of the Potomac by Gen. George G. Meade (q.v.), and the latter at once pursued the Confederates with such celerity and determination that Lee was forced to stop and give battle. Tlie two armies met in the great battle of Gettysburg, which lasted July 1-3. Gen- eral Re;siiolds Avas killed during the first day's fight, and on the last day General Hancock was dangerously wounded. 'The result of the three days' battle was a most complete Federal vic- tory. Lee, having recrossed the Potomac, now retreated to a position on the Eapidan, and stra- tegic movements on the part of the two armies, accompanied by occasional heavy skirmishing, occupied the time until wintei'. In the South- west, since the close of 1802, the main operations had centred aboiit Vicksburg, converted by the Confederates into a great stronghold. After va- rious attempts at its capture had failed. (Jeneral Grant, by a series of brilliant strategic move- ments, succeeded in May. 1803. in closely invest- ing the city, and on .July 4. almost at the mo- ment of the victory of Gettysburg, General Pem- berton was forced bv famine to surrender the place w ith his army 'of 30.000 men. The fall of Port Hudson. July 8. secured the complete control of the Mississippi by the Union forces, and thus sei)arated the two sections of the Confederacy. The struggle for the middle ground of Kentucky and Tennessee was marked by the battles of Perry- ville, October 8, 1802. and of ^Murfreesboro, De- cember 31. 1802. and January 2, 1803, with a re- sult favorable to the Federals. On September 9, 1803, General Rosecrans occupied Cliattjinooga. On September 19-20 he fought a bloody battle at Chiekamauga and was defeated, the heroic stand made by General Thomas alone saving the Union army from destruction. This reverse was more than redeemed by the great victori' of Grant over Bragg at Chattanooga (Xovember 23-25 — storm-