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ploughed through the ranks. Among this mighty multitude of the dead, hundreds of artillery horses lay scattered, with their harness upon them. It was a ghastly spectacle, such as was never before seen on this continent, and was believed never would be seen.

The burial of such a host was a gigantic and mournful labor, for the enemy had left his own dead to be interred with ours. Full ten thousand, but late brothers of the same great national family, lay stark and stiff in death, while double that number were wounded. That the rebels fought bravely, the field over which they had struggled for two days abundantly testified. So had our troops, even on the first disastrous day, though at fearful disadvantage, with the exception of some four or five thousand, who disgraced the flag they bore, and scattered in affright. On the second day all were heroes-there was no flinching-no thought of defeat. A stern determination to win back the lost field carried every regiment to the charge, and though they suffered severely, they baffled the enemy's designs, and sent him back to his stronghold crippled and disheartened. Some of the divisions were fearfully cut up. McClernand lost nearly a third of his entire force, a dreadful mortality, and showing the severest fighting, such as veterans only can stand. Some of the regiments lost every field officer, while several companies could muster the morning after the battle but a single squad. The north-west was clad in mourning, for this carnage following so quick on that of fort Donelson, left scarcely a settlement without one of its number killed or wounded.

The value of the sanitary commission was now felt. Organized at the outset of the war, it had been rather a costly machine, without any results to show equal to its promise.

Though multitudes had been slain and wounded since the commencement of the war, they had fallen in small numbers, and at times and points so far from each other that the extra

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SUFFERINGS OF THE WOUNDED.'

supplies and efforts of the commission were not so imperatively demanded. But here, all the ordinary means of relief were wholly inadequate, and its whole force was called into active service. Yet even this was not sufficient, and the western cities poured forth their stores for the wounded, and loaded steamboats with nurses and physicians and dispatched them to the scene of suffering. But such wholesale slaughter was new to our people, and they were unprepared for it, and many of the wounded suffered from unavoidable neglect. If, with our means, facilities, and wealth, our wounded suf fered for want of proper care, it is easy to imagine that those of the enemy must have endured untold privations.

Our entire loss in killed, wounded, and missing, was nearly fourteen thousand. This included the three thousand prisoners. The loss of the enemy, with the exception of prisoners, of which we took but few, was probably about the

same.

This battle was severely criticised, for it was well nigh lost; and if it had been, the whole west up to the Ohio would have been once more in the hands of the rebels, and at least another year added to the war. Hence, the first question in every one's mouth was: why, when such momentous events hung on this battle, was it allowed to take place before we were prepared for it? A single severe storm that would have kept Buell back for twenty-four hours, would have annihilated our army, and brought about this disastrous result, that one even now trembles to contemplate. There seemed no necessity for running such a terrible risk, and the feeling was universal that there was bad management somewhere. Again it was asked, if it seemed necessary to hold the west bank of the Tennessee with only a part of our force, while the enemy was in striking distance with the whole of his, why was our army allowed to be surprised? The friends of Grant, feeling that this implied condemnation of him, denied

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that it was a surprise. But if sweeping the camp of one entire division before the men could fall into rank, and the storming of another so suddenly, that only a portion of the troops could be rallied, while even those were captured with their commander, does not constitute a complete surprise, then it is hard indeed to define one. Whether the blame rests on Grant or on the commanders of the front divisions, is a question it may not be easy at present to decide; but that there was negligence or ignorance somewhere, is indisputable. The rebel army on the first day was handled with consummate skill; while on our side there seemed but little done by our Generals, except to hold their troops as steady as possible under fire, and delay the catastrophe that appeared inevitable, as long as possible. That we were not completely overthrown is due alone to the merciful interposition of Providence.

Of course this battle stopped for the time being, all farther movements in that locality. The remainder of Buell's division was brought up, and Halleck hastened to the field to take command in person, and reorganize the army.

In the mean time, the enemy began to fortify himself in Corinth, and prepare for the next grand struggle for the valley of the Mississippi; while Foote appeared before fort Wright to repeat the bombardment that had accomplished so little at Island Number Ten. During this interval, General Mitchell, with his brigade had been detached from Buell's army, and by a rapid, masterly march on Huntsville, Alabama, seized it without any loss, and captured two hundred prisoners. In the telegraph office, he found and deciphered a dispatch from Beauregard, asking for reinforcements and giving the effective force of his army. He also seized the rail road for fifty miles on either side, capturing some fifteen locomotives and other rolling stock.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

APRIL, 1862.

EXPEDITION AGAINST NEW ORLEANS-THE FORTS AND OBSTRUCTIONS IN THE MISSISSIPPI TO BE OVERCOME-THE BOMBARDMENT OF THE FORTS-FIRE

RAFTS-FARRAGUT DETERMINES TO RUN THE BATTERIES-A DESPERATE BATTLE-CAPTAIN BOGGS OF THE VARINA-A GALLANT BOY-NEW ORLEANS SURRENDERED-STATE OF FEELING THERE-FARRAGUT'S ORDER DIRECTING THANKS TO BE OFFERED TO GOD FOR SUCCESS-BUTLER OCCUPIES THE CITY —PORTER'S LETTER CONCERNIng the bombaRDMENT, AND THE RAMS.

THE

HE month of April closed gloriously for the national us cause in the valley of the Mississippi; for it gave us New Orleans, the most important city of the southern confederacy, and thus made certain to us the final possession of the entire river.

Captain Farragut, with a fleet of gun boats, and Porter, with a mortar fleet, had long since left our northern waters for some unknown point. Much anxiety had been felt for its success; and when at length news was received that it had left Ship island, where it was known to have rendezvoused, for New Orleans, accompanied by a land force under Butler, great fears were entertained of its ability to force the formidable barriers that blocked the river below the city.

Two forts, Jackson and St. Philip, nearly opposite each other, the former very strong and casemated, the two mounting in all two hundred and twenty-five guns, commanded the approach. In addition to these, a heavy chain had been stretched across the channel, buoyed upon schooners, and directly under the fire of the batteries, so that any vessels attempting to remove it, could be sunk. There were besides, heavily mounted iron-clad gun boats, ponderous rams,

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before whose onset the strongest ship would go down, and fire rafts and piles of drift wood, ready to be launched on our advancing vessels. It was believed by the rebels, that nothing that ever floated, could safely pass all these obstructions, but should some few by a miracle succeed, bands of young men were organized in New Orleans, to board them at all hazard, and capture them.

Such were the obstacles that presented themselves to Farragut and Porter, as they, in the middle of April, slowly steamed up the mighty river.

It was laborious work getting the fleet over the bars at the mouth of the Mississippi, and up the rapid stream, to the scene of action, for the mortar boats were not steamers. Weeks were occupied in it, and the north almost began to despair of hearing any good report of the expedition, and eventually it was quite lost sight of in the absorbing news from the upper Mississippi, and the Tennessee. But though shut out from the world, its gallant commanders were quietly, but energetically preparing for the herculean task assigned them.

Six war steamers, sixteen gun boats, twenty-one mortar vessels, with five other national vessels, among them the Harriet Lane, Porter's flag-ship, making in all nearly fifty armed vessels, constituted the entire force. It was a formidable fleet, but it had formidable obstacles to overcome.

On the eighteenth the bombardment commenced, and the first day nearly two thousand shells were thrown into the forts. Some burst beyond them, others in mid air, and some not at all, while hundreds fell with a thundering crash inside the works, cracking the strongest casemates in their ponderous descent. On one side of the river, the mortar vessels lay near some trees on the bank, and the men dressed the masts in green foliage to conceal their position. Decked out as for a Christmas festival, they could not be distinguished at the