NO PLUNDERING. 151 Nov. 9, 1862, establishing the peremptory regulation that stoppage should be made on muster and pay rolls against divisions for the full amount of depredations committed by any member or members of the division. This compelled the officers of each division of the army to be personally responsible, and to trace the depredations to their proper sources. It was declared in express terms that confiscation acts were never intended to be executed by soldiers. If they were it was shown them that the Government, who paid the soldiers, should reap the benefit, and not the soldiers themselves. All such depredators, therefore, were to have their pay stopped at once. Not only commissioned officers, but all good men in the ranks, were shown that the correction of this evil was in their own hands. Their patriotism, their selfrespect, were appealed to, and a reward held out to all who would aid in detecting offenders. For every violation of the rule to respect private property, commissioned officers were assessed in proportion to their pay; and thus a proper example was set before the men. The result of this proceeding on the part of Gen. Grant was all he expected. It did not, it could not, thoroughly eradicate the evil; but it ameliorated it to a great extent; it promoted good discipline in the army, and gave a new and better tone to public sentiment in the conquered country. Society felt the benefit of the regulations he had made, in all its parts. It was another indication of that clear judgment and strong common sense that distinguish him among men. The flocking-in of large numbers of self-emancipated blacks from different portions of his department required the exercise of much caution as to their disposition. The general, therefore, placed them in a special camp, in charge of competent parties. Regulations were issued with reference to their location, provision, and employment. They were organized into companies, and set to work picking, ginning, and baling cotton, as it stood on the plantations. Commanding officers were required to send all such persons at once to the quarters provided for them, with such teams, cooking-utensils, and other baggage, as they brought with them. A regiment of infantry was placed around them as a guard, suitable surgeons were put in charge of them, and such provision made as could be for their education and religious enjoy ment. These concerted movements of Gen. Grant were among the first of the kind begun in the Army of the South-west for the protection and welfare of this class. Wherever his practical suggestions have been carried out faithfully, the best results have ensued. CHAPTER XIX. RECOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. HE complete possession of the navigation of the Mississippi River was a paramount object with Gen. Grant. In anticipation of his movements, the rebel authorities had sent new forces into the region near his department, in the hope of intercepting him in his plans. But he had laid them too deeply and had pursued them too cautiously, to be thus circumvented by traitors. He perfectly understood all his own position, and could well apprehend what the operations of the enemy would undoubtedly be. Nothing was left to mere conjecture. Every point was securely guarded. His work was begun on `a purpose long and carefully preconcerted. The importance of the Mississippi to the United States can never be too highly prized. Some of our younger readers would probably like to have the Major give them a description of this great stream of water, in the recovery of which, from the hands of the wicked leaders of the Slaveholders' Rebellion, Gen. Grant took so prominent and successful a part. The Mississippi is the largest river in North America. In its length of navigable tributaries, and in extent of facilities afforded to travel and commerce, it is the greatest river in the world. Its first discovery by Europeans was made by a Spanish sea captain, named Pinedo, in the year 1519. On entering its mouth from the Gulf of Mexico he called that part of its waters the Mar Pequena, or Little Sea. The mighty river he set down on his map of discovery as the Rio del Espiritu Santo, or the River of the Holy Ghost. In a chart made for the celebrated Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Spain, in 1529, it is placed with remarkable accuracy under the twentyninth degree of north latitude. The great bay which these early navigators of our American coast called the "Little Sea" is the sheet of water included in the promontories formed by the northern gulfshore and the passes of the Mississippi. They found these passes difficult of navigation in their day; and, on all the capes by which they sailed in safety, they put up the holy cross. Capt. Pinedo was followed, in the years 1532 and 1535, by Cambeca de Vaca, Navarez, and other enterprising seamen, who made several additional discoveries. They passed farther up the stream, and called it the Rio Grande, or Grand River. Fernando de Soto was the third discoverer and principal old Spanish explorer of the Mississippi. He arrived on its borders, in the neighborhood of the Chickasaw Bluffs, in the year 1542. After as RECOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 155 cending and descending the river, and making many important discoveries of its wonderful extent, he died on its solitary banks, and was buried in its silent waters at the dead hour of night, near the mouth of the Arkansas. In the following year, 1543, the successor of De Soto, Capt. Mososco, sailed down the entire length of the river to the sea. These navigators from old Spain were followed by others from different countries. In 1673 a Frenchman named Marquette, in 1682 another named La Salle, and in 1685 De Ponti, made still more minute discoveries. La Salle explored in boats all the passes at the mouth of the river, and erected a monument at one of the dividing points, bearing the arms of France. The first designation of the river as the "Mississippi" was by Father Marquette in 1672. He, however, added to the Indian name the title Rivière de Conception, the River of Conception. Subsequently La Salle, having been sent out by Colbert, the French Minister of Marine, called it "Rivière de Colbert," the River of de Colbert. On some old maps, long after this, the whole Upper Mississippi country was called La Colbertie, - Colbert's Land. The origin of the name "Mississippi" is traced to the Indian tribes on its banks. Several other attempts were made to change it, beside those already mentioned. Iberville, another traveller, in the year 1699, called it Malbouchia. In the year 1712, King |