Chapter 21: slavery and Emancipation.--affairs in the Southwest.
- The Army of the Cumberland rests at Murfreesboroa -- Meeting of the Thirty — seventh Congress, 554. -- Confiscation and Emancipation proposed, 555. -- proposed compensation for emancipated slaves, 556. -- temper of the people of the border Slave-labor States, 557. -- the people impatient for Emancipation -- War powers of the President, 558. -- preliminary proclamation of Emancipation -- public anxiety, 559. -- Definitive proclamation of Emancipation, 560. -- the original draft of the proclamation, 561. -- character of the proclamation -- the instrument, and the pen with which it was written, 564. -- First regiment of colored troops -- scene in a live -- Oak Grove, 565. -- the Confederate Congress, so-called, 566. -- Jefferson Davis and his chosen Counselors, 567. -- Confederate pirate -- ships, 568. -- the pirates Semmes and Maffit, 569. -- Confederate naval commission, 570. -- Barbarism and Civilization illustrated by the Alabama and George Griswold. 571. -- Vicksburg and its importance, 572. -- Grant's advance in Mississippi, 573. -- serious disaster at Holly Springs, 574. -- Sherman's descent of the Mississippi, 575. -- natural defenses of Vicksburg, 576. -- movements at Chickasaw Bayou in their rear, 577. -- battle at Chickasaw Bayou, 578. -- Sherman compelled to withdraw, 579. -- expedition against Arkansas post, 580. -- capture of Arkansas post, 581. -- posts on Red River captured, 582.
The Army of the Cumberland was compelled by absolute necessity to remain at Murfreesboroa until late in 1863. That necessity was found in the fact that its supplies had to be chiefly drawn from Louisville, over a single line of railway, passing through a country a greater portion of whose inhabitants were hostile to the Government. This line had to be protected at many points by heavy guards, for Bragg's cavalry force continued to be far superior to that of Rosecrans, and menaced his communications most seriously. But during that time the Army of the Cumberland was not wholly idle. From it went out important expeditions in various directions, which we shall consider hereafter. We have now taken note of the most important military operations of the war to the close of 1862, excepting some along the Atlantic coast after the capture of Fort Pulaski, the land and naval expedition down the coasts of Georgia and Florida, in the spring of 1862, and the departure of Burnside from North Carolina in July following, to join the Army of the Potomac.1 The immediately succeeding events along that coast were so intimately connected with the long siege of Charleston, that it seems proper to consider them as a part of that memorable event. Let us now take a brief view of civil affairs having connection with military events, and observe what the Confederate armed vessels were doing in the mean time. The second session of the Thirty-seventh Congress commenced on the 2d of December, 1861. It was a most important period in the history of the country. A civil war of unparalleled magnitude and energy was raging in nearly every slave-labor State of the Republic, waged on the part of the insurgents for the destruction of the old Union, that the slave system might be extended and perpetuated; and on the part of the Government for the preservation of the life of the Republic and the maintenance of its constitutional powers. The people and the lawgivers had been much instructed by current events during the few months since the adjournment of Congress,
Aug., 1861. |
