victory, destroying or scattering the confederate fleet in less than four hours, causing the abandonment of one of the three forts immediately, and the surrender of the other two upon the appearance of a land force. The closing of Mobile left but one port, Wilmington, where the blockade could be run. Reëlec Lincoln. In the midst of war a new state, Nevada, was tion of admitted to the Union, (October 31.) The presidential election followed, (November 8.) This was justly regarded as deciding whether the war should be continued or stopped. The democratic party, or the majority of them, wanted it stopped, and declared it a failure. They put forward, however, a candidate, General McClellan, who might think it a failure, but could not wish it stopped until it succeeded. Mr. Lincoln was the republican candidate, nominated not without open and secret opposition, and receiving a half-hearted support from many of the most earnest men in the party. But he stood for the Union, and the Union chose him its president for another term, by two hundred and twelve out of two hundred and thirty-three electoral votes, and a popular majority of more than four hundred thousand. All things considered, the long sufferings and the life-long losses of the war, and the uncertainty in which its issues were still involved, the will of the people to continue it is as really sublime as any thing in our history. Thirteenth It soon appeared how much more than the elecamend- tion itself had been at stake. Congress repealed ment. the fugitive slave law before the election, (June, 1864;) but only the Senate would consent to the proposition of an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery within the United States. After the election, the House adopted it by more than a two thirds' vote, amid rejoicings which have few parallels in congressional annals, (January 31, 1865.) This amendment, known as the Thirteenth, was ratified in the course of the year by three fourths of the state legislatures, and became a part of the Constitution. Slaves en Singular as it may seem, the confederate Conlisted by gress itself was moving towards emancipation. We the con- have passed over the straits to which the governfederates. ment at Richmond was gradually reduced-its want of means, its want of men. As the campaign of 1864 became more and more disastrous, the measures to which it brought the confederates became more and more remarkable. At length, Jefferson Davis proposed, and General Lee recommended, the employment of slaves as soldiers, and that those so employed should be freed, either on entering or quitting service. A bill was brought before Congress, adopted by the House, rejected by the Senate, but on the Virginia senators voting for it, in obedience to the legislature of that state, the bill was carried, (February, 1865.) "It is an abandonment," said one of the senators from Virginia, "of the ground on which we seceded from the old Union. If we are right in passing this measure, we were wrong in denying to the old government the right to interfere with the institution of slavery and to emancipate slaves." There could be no clearer proof that the confederates were vanquished. Fort But battles remained to be fought. One had Fisher. already occurred at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, where Fort Fisher and other strong fortifications protected the approach to Wilmington. This it became important to reduce, not merely to complete the blockade at the only point where it was incomplete, but to prepare for General Sherman's advance from Georgia through the Carolinas. The first attempt failed. The fleet under Admiral Porter bombarded the fort vigorously; but General Butler, taking command of the troops, though it was intended that they should be led by one of his subordinate generals, allowed only one part of them to be disembarked, and returned with the whole to James River, (December 24-25, 1864.) General Grant then ordered General Terry to take them back, and he landed them above the fort, intrenched their position, and then led them to a severe and successful assault, the fleet aiding by a continuous bombardment, (January 13-15, 1865.) Fort Fisher was surrendered, and all the other works at the mouth of the Cape Fear were abandoned. Sherman in the Sherman was all the while preparing to march northward. His instructions were to embark his Carolinas. army at Savannah for the James River, in order to combine with the forces there; but he was anxious to march by land, which would bring up the troops in better condition, and at the same time inflict a mortal blow upon the Carolinas, particularly the one which began the war. "At one stride," he promised, he would "make Goldsboro', and open communications with the sea by Newbern." Grant consented, and by the 1st of February, Sherman's army was in motion towards Columbia. It was a far more difficult march than that to Savannah. The weather was wet and cold, the roads were under water, the rivers were swollen; we must all turn amphibious," said Sherman. But he reached his first point, the capital of South Carolina, and it was surrendered, (February 17.) On the same night Charleston was evacuated, the confederates no longer regarding it as tenable, and on the next morning the Union troops in that neigborhood entered the city and took possession of Fort Sumter, (February 18.) Both cities were fired by the confederates, and both would have been utterly destroyed but for the exertions of the Union soldiers. Sherman kept on, and crossed the line between 66 the Carolinas, (March 8,) then entered Fayetteville, (March 11,) and communicated with the Union army on the coast. This was now under General Schofield, who, with a considerable force, had come from Tennessee, by way of Washington, to Fort Fisher, taken Wilmington, (February 22,) and moved to the interior in order to join Sherman. The junction was soon effected at Goldsboro', (March 21,) but not before Sherman had some severe encounters with the enemy, now concentrated from various quarters under General Johnston. Railroad communication was immediately established between Goldsboro' and Newbern, and Sherman left his army for a few days in order to meet the president and General Grant at City Point, and concert the final operations which were evidently at hand. Grant's over Lee. The armies on the north and south side of the victory James held their positions through the winter unchanged, until the left was extended as far as Hatcher's Run, (February 6.) A few weeks later General Sheridan was directed to bring a strong body of mounted men from Winchester, in the Shenandoah Valley, across the northern and western communications of Richmond, either to Sherman's or to Grant's headquarters. He came to Grant's, (March 27,) having excited great alarm at the confederate capital. Then Grant began decisive movements. The army of the Potomac had just repelled the last effort of Lee to break its line, (March 27,) and now turned upon his lines. He could not hold them, but he must be attacked before retreating, and prevented from joining Johnston, as he was believed to intend. To turn his right was Grant's first object, and Sheridan gained it in the battle of Five Forks, (April 1.) To break Lee's lines was Grant's next object, and the whole army gained it by a common and irresistible assault, in consequence of which Lee sent word to Jefferson Davis that Richmond must be evacuated, (April 2.) It was so, amid confusion and horror, all order lost, while flames, kindled by direction of the war department, were threatening the whole city with ruin, as the Union troops came in, and instantly set about extinguishing the fire, (April 3.) That day, one long, broad thrill of exultation ran through the loyal states. The end, they knew, was near; the sacrifices, in order to attain it, were not in vain. Grant was in pursuit of the retreating army. Broken as it might be, it was still an army, still his great object; and while others made their entry into Richmond, he, and Meade, and Sheridan, and the rest, pressed on for six days more, when, at Appomattox Court House, Lee surrendered the army of Northern Virginia, (April 9.) Again the loyal states exulted, and as day succeeded day, with fresh evidences of the great victory that had been won, the country seemed secure. Assassi ident. Every thing was again plunged into insecurity nation of by the assassination of the president. He had visthe pres- ited Richmond, and returned to Washington full of kindly purposes towards the conquered, when an actor, named Booth, entered the box where he sat in a theatre, and shot him through the head. He lingered, unconscious, for several hours, and died early on the following morning, (April 15.) The life of the secretary of state was attempted by another hand the same night, and other high officers of government, it was believed, had been in peril. Andrew Johnson, vice president, succeeded to the presidency; but his character was not such as to reassure those who mourned for Lincoln. They were millions. If ever the heart of the nation was moved as one man, it was then; and the grief was all the deeper in contrast with the joy that had just gone before. Close of The day before the president's assassination, the the war. secretary of war announced his intention" to stop |