BATTLE OF ANTIETAM 1862 as in many other important movements of the Army of Northern Virginia, the cavalry, under J. E. B. Stuart, played an important part. Pope fell back rapidly with a hope of destroying Jackson before Lee or Longstreet could come to the rescue. Jackson, however, withdrew to a strong position near the Junction, which he was able to hold until Longstreet should follow him through Thoroughfare Gap. At sunset on August 28 Longstreet's advance had passed the Gap and was nearing Jackson's right. There was fighting there on the 29th, but Jackson held his own, and on the 30th Lee's whole army was in front of Pope. In the afternoon of the 30th Lee took the offensive, threw his entire force against the Federals, and drove them from their position. Pope retreated across Bull Run and prepared himself to resist another attack. The next day another action occurred at Chantilly on the Federal right. Among the killed on the Union side was brave Phil Kearney. Pope attributed his want of success to the failure of his reenforcements from McClellan's army to march at the sound of the guns. General Fitz-John Porter was especially blamed, and a long controversy was the result. It ended many years after the war in his exoneration. In September McClellan was appointed to command the defences of Washington, and Pope was relieved of the command of the Army of Virginia. Encouraged by these victories, Lee resolved to advance still further. On September 4 he crossed the Potomac, occupied Fredericksburg, Maryland, and issued a proclamation to the people of the State inviting them to join the Confederacy. Meanwhile he detached Jackson to capture Harper's Ferry, which was occupied by a strong force of Federals under Miles. Jackson did this with great skill, took 12,000 prisoners and many guns, and then hurried on to join Lee, who, after the battle of South Mountain, was confronted by 1862 THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION McClellan at Antietam Creek. On September 17 the battle of Antietam was fought. McClellan, with 80,000 men, attacked Lee, whose force was not more than 40,000. The battle was stubborn and bloody. Successive attacks of the Federals were repulsed, and Lee held his position, but on the night of the second day he withdrew across the Potomac. Both sides claimed a victory. McClellan made no immediate pursuit, but by November he had crossed the Potomac and camped on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge. The retreat of Lee's army seemed a good occasion for Lincoln to issue a proclamation which he had had in mind for some time. This was the famous Emancipation Proclamation declaring that all slaves held in States that were in rebellion on January 1, 1863, would on that date become free. It was issued on September 27. Sentiment had been steadily growing throughout the North in favor of making the war for the Union a war against slavery also. Early in the war certain Union generals had taken the authority to emancipate slaves in the regions occupied by their armies. These acts Lincoln had refused to ratify, but on March 3, 1862, he had signed the act forbidding the return of slaves escaping through the lines. About the time of Lee's advance into Maryland, the Confederates in the West also took the offensive. General Braxton Bragg, now in command of their Western army, advanced as far as Frankfort in Kentucky. General Rosecrans, with the Federal forces, was operating in Mississippi and won an advantage at the battle of Corinth, successfully repulsing the Confederate attack. On October 8 Bragg and Buell met at Perryville, Kentucky. Mainly through the stubborn resistance of General Phil Sheridan the attack of Bragg was repulsed. During the night Bragg withdrew, and in October Rosecrans succeeded Buell. Late in December he moved upon Bragg at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and fought the bat BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG 1862 tle of Stone's River, in which, after a long and bloody struggle, he forced Bragg to retire. But in Virginia the Union forces met still another disaster before the year's campaigns came to an end. Notwithstanding McClellan's repulse of Lee's advance at Antietam, the authorities at Washington were dissatisfied with his management of the army. On November 5 Lincoln put Ambrose E. Burnside in command of the army. Burnside at once moved down the lower Rappahannock to a point opposite Fredericksburg, with the intention to get between Lee's army and Richmond. Finally he decided to cross the river and make an assault on Lee's army. A crossing was effected on the night of December 12 and the attack was delivered the next day. Lee, occupying a strong position, repulsed Burnside with immense slaughter. Joseph Hooker succeeded Burnside. In the management of the civil affairs of the two governments, the Union had a great advantage. The principal banks in the North had been forced to suspend specie payments in 1861, but there was no such widespread suffering from the war as there was in the South. The public debt had increased from $64,000,000, on July 1, 1860, to $90,000,000 in 1861, and to more than $500,000,000 in 1862. While McClellan lay inactive in the Peninsula, it was estimated that the debt was increasing at the rate of $2,000,000 a day. However, Secretary Chase managed the finances with great ability, and the business men of the North never lost confidence in the Government. The Legal Tender Act, providing for the issue of $500,000,000 in six per cent bonds and $150,000,000 in notes bearing no interest-popularly called "Greenbacks"—was of questionable constitutionality, but it served the purpose of the Government. The war loans had an indirect result of great importance, for they led to the establishment of a system of National Banks, just as the 1862 COTTON FAMINE IN ENGLAND war tariffs cemented the foundation of the protective system. The National Bank system was based on the privilege extended to creditors of the Government to issue currency notes against a large percentage of the loan. Still, the opponents of President Lincoln's Administration made gains in the elections toward the close of the year. The Civil War in America had now begun to make itself deeply felt in England. In the first quarter of the year English exports to the United States had diminished from £21,667,000 to £9,058,000. This produced a great derangement of monetary and commercial affairs, with enforced idleness and distress of large masses of the working population. The Union blockade of the Southern ports produced in the English factory towns a cotton famine, as it was then termed, which deprived some 2,000,000 operatives of their usual employment, and gradually reduced them to destitution. An alarming increase of paupers ensued. Yet, such was the almost magical success which had attended Gladstone's financial operations, and the free trade treaty which Cobden had negotiated with France, that, notwithstanding the depression of American trade, the British revenue showed an increase of no less than £2,000,000. While trade with the United States was reduced French trade increased within the period of a single year from £2,190,000 to £6,910,000. EVENTS OF 1863 Emancipation Proclamation Goes into Effect-Chinese Dismiss the Mercenary Burgevine-Gordon Commands the "Ever-Victorious" Army -After Thirteen Victories He is Defeated Before Soochow-Li Hung Chang Refuses Soldiers' Pay-Gordon Resigns-Li Hung Chang Assassinates Taiping Leaders-Confederate Ironclads Rout Blockaders at Charleston-Union Army and Navy Vainly Assault Vicksburg, Miss.-Union Draft Creates New York Riots-Lincoln Uses Military Power to Suppress Northern Agitation against the War-He Sends Vallandigham, an Ohio Agitator, into Confederate Lines Ohio Democrats Nominate Vallandigham as Governor-Lee and Jackson Outwit Hooker and Sedgwick and Win Battle of Chancellorsville, Va.-Jackson Accidentally Killed-Lee Invades Pennsylvania-Hooker and Halleck Disagree, and Hooker ResignsMeade Succeeds Him-He Intercepts Lee's Eastward Progress at Gettysburg-He Defeats Lee in Three Days' Battle-Lee Retreats Across Potomac-Discovery of Bacteria-French Besiege and Capture Puebla-They Enter City of Mexico and Establish Provisional Government-Bazaine Supersedes Forey as Marshal-Cabanel Exhibits Masterpiece-Union Army under Grant and Fleet under Farragut and Porter, by Successive Victories, Arrive Before Vicksburg, Miss.-Repulsed in Two Assaults, Grant Invests the CityJohnston Fails to Relieve the Besieged Army, and Pemberton, Its Commander, Surrenders-Banks (Union) Takes Port Hudson, La., the Last Confederate Stronghold on the Mississippi-Confederates are Defeated at Helena, Ark.-Rosecrans_ (Union) Foils Bragg in First Day's Fight at Chickamauga, Ga.-Rosecrans is Beaten Back into Chattanooga, Tenn., on the Second Day, the Stand of Thomas (Union) on the Right Alone Saving Him from Rout-Thomas Supersedes Rosecrans-Grant Arrives and Takes Command-He Drives Bragg from Chattanooga Heights-Union Forces Storm Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge-Burnside (Union) Repulses Longstreet at Knoxville, Tenn.-Admiral Dupont (Union) Fails in Attacks on Charleston-Deaths of Vernet, the Painter, and Thackeray, the Novelist-Denmark Annexes Schleswig-Bismarck Forms Prussian-Austrian Alliance on Schleswir-Holstein Question-German Confederation Throws Troops into Disputed Territory. HE first day of this year is forever memorable as the date on which Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. The Proclamation itself was issued as an act of war by virtue of the President's powers as Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy. It purported to free the slaves in those parts of the Union in rebellion against the United States, and therefore did not apply to the border States or parts of States which had not seceded. Of course, it could have no practical effect, save |