Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 7.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[443] an unexampled cannonade with singular impunity. Not one life was lost on board of a Monitor. The defects disclosed have been remedied, and an attack is now in progress, with good prospects of ultimate success, having for its object the reduction of the forts in the harbor by combined sea and land forces. We occupy more than one half of Morris Island with land forces, which, aided by batteries afloat and batteries ashore, are pushing siege-works up to Fort Wagner, a strong earthwork which has been twice assaulted with great gallantry, but without success. On the seventeenth of June, the Atlanta, which was regarded by the insurgents as their most formidable iron-clad vessel, left Savannah, and came down the Wilmington River. The national iron-clads Weehawken, Captain John Rogers, and Nahant, Commander John Downs, were in readiness to meet her. At four o'clock fifty-four minutes the Atlanta. fired a rifle-shot across the stern of the Weehawken, which struck near the Nahant. At quarter-past five the Weehawken, at a range of three hundred yards, opened upon the Atlanta, which had then grounded. The Weehawken fired five shots, four of which took effect on the Atlanta. She surrendered at half-past 5.

Our lines have not changed in North-Carolina. All attempts of the insurgents to recapture the towns from which they had been expelled have been repulsed. Much damage has been inflicted upon their communications, and valuable military stores have been destroyed by expeditions into the interior. North-Carolina shows some symptoms of disaffection toward the insurgent league. Similar indications are exhibited in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas.

The situation on the York and James Rivers has remained unchanged since the withdrawal of the army of General McClellan from the Peninsula a year ago. Attempts by the insurgents to retake Williamsburgh and Suffolk have been defeated, but the garrison at the latter place has been withdrawn for purely military reasons to a more defensible line.

I now return to the army of the Potomac, which was left resting and refitting after putting an end to the first insurgent invasion of Maryland. General McClellan recrossed the Potomac and entered Virginia in November, and obliged the invading forces under Lee to fall backward to Gordonsville, south of the Rappahannock. When the army of the Potomac reached Warrenton it was placed under command of General Burnside. He marched to Falmouth, hoping to cross the Rappahannock at Fredericksburgh, and to move at once upon Richmond. Delays, resulting from various causes, without fault of the General, permitted the insurgents to occupy the heights of Fredericksburgh, and when, at length, in December, General Burnside crossed the Rappahannock, his assault upon Lee's well-fortified position failed. He skilfully recrossed the river without loss. General Hooker succeeded to the command, and it was not until the beginning of May that the condition of the roads permitted a renewal of offensive operations. The General crossed the Rappahannock and accepted a battle, which proved equally sanguinary to both parties, and unsuccessful to the army of the Potomac. The heights of Fredericksburgh were captured by General Sedgwick's corps, but the whole army was compelled to return to the north bank of the river. After this battle, Lee, in the latter part of May and in June, withdrew his army from General Hooker's front, and ascending the south bank of the Rapidan, toward the sources of the Rappahannock, entered the Shenandoah Valley, and once more tempted the fortunes of war by invading the loyal States. A severe cavalry engagement at Beverly Ford unmasked this movement. The army of the Potomac broke up its camps and marched to the encounter. The militia of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New-York flew to arms, and occupied Baltimore, Harrisburgh, and the line of the Susquehanna. The two armies met at Gettysburgh, in Pennsylvania, and after a fierce contest of three days duration, and terrible slaughter on both sides, the insurgents recoiled from the position held by General Meade, who had been then only four days in command of the army of the Potomac. On the fourth of July, the day of the surrender of Vicksburgh, Lee retreated, passing through Chambersburgh and Hagerstown to Williamsport, where the proper disposition to attack him was made by General Meade. Deceived concerning the state of the river, supposed to be unfordable, General Meade, hourly expecting reenforcements, delayed the attack a day too long, and the insurgents, partly by fording and partly by floating bridges, succeeded in withdrawing across the river by night, with their artillery and a great part of their baggage. Much of this baggage, as well as of the plunder which Lee had collected, was destroyed by cavalry, or thrown out of the, wagons to make room for the wounded whom Lee carried off from the battlefield. He had buried most of his dead of the first day's conflict at Gettysburgh. The remainder, together with those who fell on the second and third days of the battle, in all four thousand five hundred, were buried by the victorious army. Many thousand insurgents, wounded and captives, fell into the hands of General Meade. It is not doubted that this second unsuccessful invasion cost the insurgents forty thousand men. Our own loss was severe, for the strife was obstinate and deadly. General Meade crossed the Potomac. Lee retired again to Gordonsville, where he is now understood to be in front of our forces.

While the stirring events which have been related were occurring in the East and in the West, General Rosecrans advanced upon Bragg, who, with little fighting, hastily abandoned his fortified positions of Shelbyville and Tullahoma, in Southern Tennessee. General Rosecrans took, and he yet holds them, while Bragg, with severe loss in a hurried retreat, has fallen back to Chattanooga. It is understood that his army had