wounded all about them, but they pressed onward; they cut away the abatis; they filled the ditch; and a few made their way up to the top of the parapet. There a terrible hand-to-hand conflict ensued. Clubbed muskets, bayonets, sabres, even spades and axes, were employed in the dreadful work, and not a score of the brave_storming party escaped. A sortie was made on the rear of the assaulting column, which faltered, stopped, and at last retreated in great confusion. General Longstreet lost, that day, upwards of one thousand men. General Burnside permitted him to remove his wounded and bury his dead, but there was no disposition to renew the attack.

General Grant had meanwhile sent General Sherman to relieve Knoxville, and as he approached, General Longstreet, baffled, disappointed, and defeated, raised the siege. General Burnside issued an order congratulating his troops on the unsurpassed fortitude and patient watchfulness with which they had sustained the wearing duties of the defense, and the unyielding courage with which they had repulsed the most dangerous assaults. The next day, having been relieved by General Foster, he issued the following order, in which he took his leave of the Army of the Ohio :

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO,

General Field Orders, No. 38.

KNOXVILLE, TENN., Dec. 16, 1863.

In obedience to orders from the War Department, the commanding general this day resigns to Maj.-Gen. John G. Foster the command of the Army of the Ohio.

On severing the tie which has united him to this gallant army, he cannot express his deep personal feeling at parting from men brought near to him by their mutual experiences in the eventful scenes of the past campaign, and who have always, regardless of every privation and of every danger, cheerfully and faithfully performed their duty. Associated with many of their number from the earliest days of the war, he takes leave of this army, not only as soldiers to whose heroism many a

victorious battle-field bears witness, but as well-tried friends, who in the darkest hours have never failed him. With the sincerest regret he leaves the department without the opportunity of personally bidding them farewell.

To the citizen-soldiers of East Tennessee, who proved their loyalty in the trenches of Knoxville, he tenders his warmest thanks.

With the highest confidence in the patriotism and skill of the distinguished officer who succeeds him, with whom he has been long and intimately connected in the field, and who will be welcomed as their leader by those who served with him in the memorable campaign in North Carolina; and by all as one identified with some of the most brilliant events of the war, he transfers to him the command, assured that under his guidance the bright record of the Army of the Ohio will never grow dim. By command of Major-General BURNSIDE.

LEWIS RICHMOND, Assistant Adjutant-General.

The loyal residents in the valley of the Ohio parted with General Burnside with great regret, for he had established the supremacy of the Union and the laws. When he assumed command he had found his department infested by persons who, to use the language of the Hon. Horace Binney, "lived on the margin of disobedience to the laws, but against whom no judicial proceedings could be brought, for the want of a tribunal having jurisdiction." To have confronted these traitors in disguise in the ordinary course of justice, would have insured their escape, and have added to the danger, frequently worse than open-armed resistance. Military arrest and an examination before a military commission promptly checked them, just as they were passing from treason in purpose to treason in act, and the supremacy of the Union, the Constitution, and the laws was asserted.

Serenaded at Cincinnati before he left for the East, General Burnside made one of his characteristic speeches, in which he modestly attributed the success of his recent operations in East Tennessee to the coöperation of his offi

cers, and especially to the enlisted men. "Thousands of the men in the ranks," said he, "deserve the credit that is given to the leaders. Many of them-foreigners - have no relatives on this side of the Atlantic who will ever hear of them again, yet they fight for the country they love, being actuated by genuine patriotism. I owe all my success to this patriotism, and I have never been more truly sensible of it than during my last campaign. For one, I shall never forget what is due to the men in the ranks."

Years afterward, when. General Burnside had gone to join his fallen comrades in the cold bivouac of the dead, and the representatives of the people were paying their tributes of respect to his memory, Maj. Augustus H. Pettibone, the Representative from the First District of Tennessee, gracefully laid a sprig of mountain laurel on the grave of the deliverer of his section of the Country. Said he:

In the darkest hour of the Civil War it was his good fortune to lead the Union forces across the mountains and to bring back to our people the loved banner which their fathers had followed when Andrew Jackson led the Tennessee soldiers on the plains of Chalmette in the defense of New Orleans. And it is entirely safe to say that among the homes of the Union people of eastern Tennessee, no name is to-day held in dearer remembrance than his. His sojourn among them was marked by a flowing courtesy toward all men which softened the asperities of war, and made all to speak his praise. His urbanity, his leonine courage, his transparent honesty, his unquestioned integrity, his patriotism, which was as broad as the limits of the Union, stamped him a born leader of In my last interview with him he sent his good wishes to his old comrades, and expressed his warm regard for those whom he had succored in the dark days of war. While stoutly maintaining the Union cause, he so bore himself that those who had thrown their fortunes into the scale of the Confederacy were compelled to honor the Union general who was tender toward the women and children, the weak and the suffering of every age, class, and condition. Among our mountains hundreds of children have been named for him, for he won the heart-love of our people. But, sir, I speak no more of his renown:

men.

Whatever record leaps to light,

He never shall be shamed.

ORDERED TO RECRUIT THE NINTH CORPS-A STORY BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN BOSTON'S SONG-WELCOME-SPEECH AT CHICAGO ON THE SITUATION- REORGANIZATION OF THE NINTH CORPS-ITS REVIEW BY THE PRESIDENT BATTLES OF THE WILDERNESS AND COLD HARBOR-CHANGE OF BASE.

O

RDERED to recruit and fill up the Ninth Army Corps, and seeking rest, General Burnside returned to his home at Providence, accompanied from Cleveland by Mrs. Burnside. They were cordially received at Albany and at New York on their way, and at a dinner given to the general at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, the following characteristic story of Mr. Lincoln was told: A few weeks previous, when Mr. Lincoln had received. telegraphic information that firing was heard in the direction of Knoxville, he simply remarked that he was "glad of it." One of his Cabinet, who knew the perils of Burnside's position, could not see why the President should be 'glad of it," and he so expressed himself. "Why, you see," responded Mr. Lincoln, it reminds me of Mrs.