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A charge made on the 17th, was also unsuccessful, and the troops engaged again met with a severe repulse. The siege, however, continued to be pressed with ardor, and the garrison was eventually reduced to great straits for want of food. On the 7th of July, news came of the capture of Vicksburg, and General Gardner, the Confederate commander, at once proposed a surrender, which took place on the 8th, the stronghold being occupied by the Federal forces on the 9th.

General Banks thereby captured six thousand two hundred and thirty-three prisoners, fifty-one pieces of artillery, two steamers, four thousand eight hundred pounds of powder, five thousand small arms, and one hundred and fifty thousand rounds of cannon ammunition.

With the surrender of Port Hudson, the triumph of the rebels in the fruitful "Attakapas country" came to an end, and they speedily escaped to western Louisiana. Port Hudson was now garrisoned by colored troops, and became the camp of instruction for colored regiments, under General Ullman. After the fall of the stronghold, General Banks returned to New Orleans.

During the siege of the latter place, General Banks was obliged, for a time, to abandon the Teche county, and the rebels, seven thousand strong, appeared on the 19th of June at Terrebonne, tore up the track of the Opelousas railroad, and attacked the Union troops at Lafourche, but were repulsed with loss.

They next attacked Brashear City, the location where were large stores, a hospital, and a convalescent camp. The gar rison was one thousand strong, and the sick and wounded in the hospital, amounted to three thousand five hundred and thirteen. The attack was made in front and rear, and the patriots were compelled to surrender, the greater part of the soldiers being paroled. In a large camp of freedmen, chiefly old men, women, and children, a most inhuman and indiscriminate massacre was perpetrated. More than two thousand helpless people were the victims of this horrid cruelty. A month previously, a body of five hundred negroes determined to reach the patriot camp and enlist as soldiers. At St. Martinsville, on their way, they demanded the surrender of the place, and being met by some professed Unionists with the national flag, they were persuaded by these false friends to lay down their arms, consisting of old shot guns

376

THE ATTEMPT ON HELENA.

and pistols. On doing so, they were seized, and every one hung on the spot. Such was the spirit of rebellion, and fully in keeping with the diabolical atrocities of worse than Indian cruelty which are exhibited in the scenes before recorded, and others of which mention must be made hereafter.

While the siege of Vicksburg was in progress, the corps assigned for the defence of northeastern Arkansas, commanded by General Prentiss, whose head-quarters were at Helena, was greatly reduced, and numbered scarcely four thousand men. The gunboat Tyler was in port, and was found of valuable service. The combined force of the enemy, under Holmes, Price, and Marmaduke, consisting of fifteen thousand men, made an attack on the position, on the 4th of July, at daylight, and after a severe struggle of two hours, succeeded in capturing one of the outworks, mounting four guns. The Tyler, having got their range, dispersed them with terrible slaughter, by huge shells from her Parrott guns. Colonel Clayton completely routed them in an approach from the north, and the gunbo again prevented their advance on the south. They then attempted to shell the town, but General Prentiss gallantly repulsed them in repeated charges, and the foiled enemy, beaten at every point, retreated toward Little Rock, the capital of the State, with a loss in killed and wounded, of fifteen hundred men, and eleven hundred prisoners. The patriot loss was two hundred and thirty. This was the last expiring effort of the rebels on the Federal posts on the Mississippi river, as after this defeat, no attempt was made of any considerable importance.

During the eleven months, ending July 15th, 1863, the country had made great progress in bringing the rebellion to a close. Two hundred thousand square miles, which, less than a year ago, were under the power of the Confederacy, had been regained. The Mississippi was again open, the blockade close and effectual, and the Confederate scrip rendered almost valueless. The news of the surrender of Vicksburg, following so soon upon the cheering intelligence that the rebel hordes had been foiled in their attempt to invade the North, and had sustained a terrible defeat at Gettysburg, strengthened the hearts and hands of the loyal people. The "Confederas y" was cut in twain, and had received a blow

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from which it could never recover, being afterward distrusted both at home and abroad.

Bloody fields and desperate struggles were yet to come, but the heart of every patriot was cheered with the general prospect. Foreign countries began to feel that the power of the Government was capable of putting down rebellion, and the oppressed people of the South, who were attached to the old flag, and had been cruelly maltreated by the secessionists, saw the day approaching in which the force of the rebellion would be broken in pieces. The poor bondsmen, who groaned under the dreadful yoke of slavery, saw deliverance drawing nigh, and thanked God for the hope of one day being free.

Having already sustained such terrible conflicts, and surmounted such immense difficulties, the nation felt hope in the future success of our armies, and magnified the goodness of Him, whose Providence was guiding the affairs of the people, and whose Omnipotence was raising the instruments with which to break the power of the rebellion, and crush its hydra head as with a single blow.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

JULY-AUGUST, 1863.

OVERTHROW OF THE REBEL POWER IN ARKANSAS-THE GUERILLAS AND BUSHWHACKERS-QUANTREL-LAWRENCE MASSACRE-ATTEMPTS TO MURDER GENERAL BLUNT-RAID IN MISSOURI-MORGAN'S RAID INTO KENTUCKY, INDIANA, AND OHIO-HIS CAPTURE AND ESCAPE-THE REIGN OF TERROR IN NEW YORK, AND SUPPRESSION OF THE RIOT-LOSSES OF LIFE AND PROPERTY-DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH-GILMORE AND DAHLGREN -MORRIS ISLAND-BOMBARDMENT OF FORT WAGNER-THE "SWAMP ANGEL-ASSAULT ON SUMTER-DAMAGE TO ITS WALLS-EVACUATION OF

MORRIS ISLAND.

AFTER the fall of Vicksburg, the Government determined to free Arkansas from the enemy, and aid the loyal citizens, whose State had been drawn out of the Union by a false vote. Accordingly, General Steele was ordered, with a large force, to advance from Helena toward Duval's Bluff, on the White river. Being joined here by General Davidson, and having established a hospital and base of supplies, General Steele moved forward on the 1st of August, 1863, and encountering the rebel army, near the line of the Bayou Metoe, drove it back to Little Rock. Having crossed the Arkansas below this place, Steele moved with part of his supplies to Arkadelphia, the Confederate base and dêpot of supplies. General Holmes, the rebel commander in Arkansas, sent Marmaduke, with his cavalry, to check the Union advance, but the latter general was put to flight, and Holmes, after destroying as much property as possible at Little Rock, fell back rapidly on Arkadelphia. General Steele, on the 10th of September, entered Little Rock, captured one thousand prisoners, and a large quantity of stores, and continued his pursuit of the rebel army toward the south.

On the 25th of October, Marmaduke, with three thousand men, attacked the garrison at Pine Bluff, consisting of five hundred and fifty men, under Colonel Clayton. In an action of five hours, the rebels were defeated, with the loss of two hundred and fifty men. On this day, also, the Unionists occupied Arkadelphia, while the shattered rebel columns were crossing the Red river. The power of the Government was

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now, with two slight exceptions, in the southwest and northwest, supreme in the State of Arkansas. The northwestern portion of the State, and the Indian Territory adjacent, since the outbreak of rebellion, had nourished a band of bushwhackers, robbers, and murderers, who committed depredations and atrocities upon the loyal inhabitants.

The most atrocious of these reprobates was one Quantrel, a villain, plunderer, and cutthroat. On the 21st of August, of this year, he attacked the city of Lawrence, Kansas, with a lawless band of eight hundred men, and murdered one hundred and twenty-five citizens in cold blood. The dwellings and stables were burned, after being plundered, and robbed of their contents. Nearly one hundred men of this cruel guerilla band were slain by a mounted force, under General James H. Lane, but the rest escaped.

One of the severest scourges of the guerillas was General James G. Blunt, of Kansas, who punished as many of them as came in his way, with great rigor. This made them resolve on his murder. In a battle fought in the Indian Territory, in July, he had attacked Cooper and Standwaite, with six thousand marauders, and completely routed them. Quantrel had fought in this battle, and eager to avenge his defeat, be attacked Blunt, on the 5th of October, between Forts Smith and Scott, the latter being escorted by only one hundred men. The rebels, three hundred strong, were dressed in Federal uniforms, and, at pistol range, made a fierce attack upon the escort, who broke and fled; but seventy-eight of their number, among whom was a son of General Curtis, surrendering, were inhumanly murdered.

Blunt, and fifteen men, cut their way out by a bold charge, and escaped south, to where Colonel Pond was stationed with his regiment. Great rejoicing prevailed among Quantrel and his associates, at the supposed death of General Blunt.

The attempts of the guerillas had signally failed in Arkansas, and Cabell, Marmaduke, Coffee, and Shelby, their chiefs, determined on a raid into Missouri, which was deemed a more promising field for their operations. Collecting seven thousand guerillas, Marmaduke and Cabell left the Indian Territory, on the 1st of October, and crossed the Arkansas, east of Fort Smith, where the former remained, with part of the forces in reserve, while Cabell and Shelby proceeding onward, were joined by General Coffee, at Crooked