School History of North Carolina Part 38

14. What is said of the events at this period?

CHAPTER LVII.

THE WAR CONTINUES.

A. D. 1862.

Amid the exultation that filled the hearts of the people of North Carolina for the victories around Richmond, there was grief in many families for heroes fallen in the discharge of duty.

Colonels Stokes, Meares, Campbell and C. C. Lee, like a great host of their compatriots, were gone to come no more. It seemed that the superior numbers and resources of the United States forces were to prove powerless before the fiery onsets of the Confederate troops.

2. In the month of August, 1862, Zebulon B. Vance, of Buncombe, then Colonel of the Twenty-sixth Regiment, was chosen Governor of North Carolina over William Johnston, of Charlotte, who had been of late Commissary-General of the State. By an ordinance of the Convention, Colonel Vance entered upon his duties as Chief- Magistrate on September 8th, 1862. He was to evince great zeal in the discharge of his official duties.

3. The first Maryland campaign, which occurred in the fall of the year, was the next event of general interest. In the battles fought in that memorable campaign the North Carolina regiments won great reputation, but a terrible loss of life. General Branch was killed and General Anderson received wounds at Sharpsburg of which he soon died, and left grief in many hearts for their untimely end. Colonel C. C. Tew also fell in the same great battle, and increased the grief of his people at the loss by the mystery of his fate. He disappeared amid the storm of conflict, but exactly how and when was never known.

4. In North Carolina there had been comparative quiet through the spring and summer months. The Federal garrisons at Plymouth and New Bern were watched by small bodies of Confederates, but no fighting occurred except in Plymouth, which town was taken and held for a few hours by Colonel Martin, with the Seventeenth Regiment, and then abandoned because of the Federal gun-boats.

5. On Blackwater River, just below Franklin, in Virginia, there was a gallant conflict of a few cavalrymen under Lieutenant Thomas Ruffin, of the Fourth Cavalry, and a Federal double-ender.

The crew were all driven from deck and the ship lay at the mercy of the a.s.sailants until her consorts came up the stream from below and sh.e.l.led the victors from their prey.

6. By the 1st of December the Federal army, this time under command of General Burnside, was confronting General Lee at Fredericksburg, Virginia. On the 13th, Burns attempted to carry our lines, but after repeated and desperate a.s.saults and terrible slaughter, withdrew his troops. It was this battle that Marye's Heights won its b.l.o.o.d.y fame. The gallantry of the enemy, especially of Meagher's Irish Brigade was magnificent.

7. Simultaneously with the attack of General Burnside of the army of General Lee at Fredericksburg, the South Carolina Brigade of General Evans, then stationed at Kinston, North Carolina, was surprised to see a few mounted Federal soldiers make an attack upon the position then held by them. The Federals were driven back and pursued in the direction of New Bern. Suddenly the South Carolinians found themselves confronted by more than twenty thousand foes.

8. In the speedy retreat that ensued, General Evans was unable to burn the bridges across the river, and effected escape with some loss. He was, the next day, reinforced and awaited General Foster's approach on the road leading to Goldsboro. But the Federals were seeking to intervene between that place and the one occupied by Evans. All Tuesday morning (December 16th) the ma.s.ses of the Union troops were seeking to cross Neuse River at White Hall; they were bravely met there by General Beverly H.

Robinson who, with the Eleventh, Thirty-first, Fifty-ninth and Sixty-third Regiments, and Battery B, Third North Carolina Battalion, withstood all their attacks and inflicted severe loss on the baffled invaders. The contest lasted for eight hours during which General Foster persisted in his efforts to drive off the Confederates, so that pontoons could be laid forming a bridge across the stream, in place of the one burned the night before.

9. Failing to cross Neuse River at White Hall, General Foster marched in the evening for Goldsboro, and, having reached the bridge of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad, succeeded in burning it, in spite of the gallant efforts of General Clingman and his brigade to prevent.

10. General Foster retired in great precipitation to New Bern, and the burned bridge was his only trophy in an expedition which seemed so threatening at its inception.

QUESTIONS.

1. What was the feeling concerning the victories around Richmond?

2. Who was chosen Governor in 1862? When did Colonel Vance enter upon the duties of Chief-Magistrate?

3. What losses had North Carolina sustained in the battle of Sharpsburg? What increased the grief of Colonel Tew's people?

4. What was the state of affairs in North Carolina during the spring and summer of 1862?

5. Describe the engagement on Blackwater River?

6. Where was the Federal army confronting General Lee on December 1st? What occurred on the 13th?

7. Can you tell of the surprise at Kinston?

S. What was the further result of this affair?

9. What is said of the conclusion of this matter?

10. Where did General Foster go?

CHAPTER LVIII.

WAR AND ITS HORRORS.

A. D. 1863.

1863.

When the year 1863 had come upon the American States in their b.l.o.o.d.y and wasting quarrel, there was nothing to indicate any solution of the great controversy. Many b.l.o.o.d.y battles had been fought, thousands of homes were saddened in the loss of brave and true men, and yet both sides were as intent as ever upon carrying on indefinitely the terrible and costly struggle.

2. Mr. Lincoln and the government at Washington said there should be no peace until the seceded States returned to their allegiance. Mr. Davis and the government at Richmond said, on the other hand, that the seceded States were, of right, free and independent States that had rightfully resumed their delegated powers, and owed no allegiance to the Federal government.

3. It was hoped that England and France would recognize the independence of the Confederate States; but beyond extending to the Southern government the rights of belligerents, this trust proved utterly fallacious. Confederate agents were received and armed vessels allowed to enter their ports, but no aid was extended to the Southern cause. The arrest of the Confederate Commissioners, Messrs. Mason and Slidell, on a British mail steamer, by a United States war vessel, was resented by England and war seemed probable; but these Southern envoys were released, and no aid came from abroad except in the ships that were bought of private persons for the purpose of cruising against vessels belonging to citizens of the United States.

4. Among the earliest measures adopted by the Federal government was the blockade of the Southern seaports. Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile and Galveston were all watched by armed ships that sought to exclude the vessels of all countries from entering these harbors. Cruisers swarmed along the whole Southern coast, and it became a matter of great peril and difficulty to send out or bring in any commodity by way of the ocean.

5. This soon led to a scarcity of salt, sugar, coffee, mola.s.ses and everything which had been formerly imported from Europe or bought of Northern merchants. Prices continually advanced as such things became more scarce in the South. Wilmington is so situated that an effective blockade there was almost impossible.

There were two inlets, and, therefore, two blockade fleets were necessary, and even with this added difficulty the blockading squadron could not prevent, on dark nights, the pa.s.sage of swift steamers that swept in and out of the Cape Fear River and brought from Na.s.sau and Bermuda what was most needed for the armies and people.

6. Soon after his inauguration, Governor Vance, at General Martin's suggestion, sent Colonel Thomas M. Crossan to England for the purpose of procuring a ship to supply the wants of North Carolina. Crossan had been a naval officer in the service of the United States, and had judgment enough in such matters to select one of the swiftest ships in the world. It was called the Lord Clyde abroad, but that name was changed to the Ad-Vance, and the vessel made many successful voyages before she was captured.

7. In the superior clothing and equipments of the North Carolina troops were the wisdom and activity of the State government manifested. And, too, not only were the necessities of our own soldiers supplied, but large aid was extended to the troops of other States. Besides this, cotton and woolen cards and many other necessaries were brought in and distributed to the different sections of the State. Salt was the most important of all the domestic supplies excluded by the blockade. To procure this indispensable article, private factories on the seacoast were supplemented by others under State management; but these proved insufficient to meet popular wants, and arrangements were made to procure additional supplies from the salt wells of southwestern Virginia.

8. It was early foreseen that in so great a struggle enormous expenditures would become necessary; and to meet such liabilities, it would be necessary for the Confederacy and the individual States to use their credit in procuring supplies on the faith of future payments. Many millions of dollars were to be expended, and only Confederate and State obligations would be available to meet such purchases.

9. Unhappily, the great supply of cotton then in the South was not utilized by the authorities, and thus a solid basis of credit was lost; and a favorite theory is, that had all the cotton been promptly seized by the government and sent to foreign ports, the depreciation of its funds would have been averted, but whether this could have been done is, to say the least, by no means certain. As it was, in 1863, both Confederate and State money began to depreciate in value, and this depreciation once begun, had no stop in its downward tendency.

QUESTIONS.

1. What was the condition of the war in 1863?

2. What positions were taken by Presidents Lincoln and Davis?

3. From what countries had the South expected aid? What is said of the arrest of Mason and Slidell?

4. What Southern cities were blockaded? What was the effect of this blockade?

5. What is said of the port of Wilmington?

6. How did Governor Vance supply the wants of the people? What is said of the Ad-Vance?