swelled by the estimated losses of our cavalry to about sixteen thousand three hundred and fifty-one. The rebel General immediately sent Longstreet against Burnside, who was at Knoxville, while he established his main force again in the neighborhood of Chattanooga. In October, General Rosecrans was superseded by General Grant. On November 23d, having been re-enforced by General Sherman from Vicksburg, General Grant moved his army to the attack, and on the 25th the whole of the range of heights known as Missionary Ridge, held by Bragg, was carried by our troops after a desperate struggle, and the enemy completely routed. This was a very severe engagement, and our loss was estimated at about four thousand. Generals Thomas and Hooker pushed the rebel forces back into Georgia, and Granger and Sherman were sent into East Tennessee to relieve Burnside, and raise the siege of Knoxville, which was pressed by Longstreet, who, failing in this attempt, soon after retreated towards Virginia. Upon receiving intelligence of these movements the President issued the following recommendation :- EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 7, 1863. Reliable information being received that the insurgent force is retreating from East Tennessee, under circumstances rendering it probable that the Union forces cannot hereafter be dislodged from that important position; and esteeming this to be of high national consequence, I recommend that all loyal people do, on receipt of this information, assemble at their places of worship, and render special homage and gratitude to Almighty God for this great advancement of the national cause. A. LINCOLN. On the 3d of October, the President had issued the following proclamation, recommending the observance of the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving : PROCLAMATION. By the President of the United States of America. The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a na ture that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke the aggressions of foreign States, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict, while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. The needful diversion of wealth and strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, has not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship. The axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect a continuance of years, with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and voice, by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer to our beneficent Father, who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, [L. 8.] and of the independence of the United States the eightyeighth. By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. CHAPTER XIV. POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN MISSOURI.-THE STATE ELECTIONS OF 1863. GENERAL FREMONT IN MISSOURI.-THE PRESIDENT'S LETTER TO GENERAL HUNTER. EMANCIPATION IN MISSOURI.-APPOINTMENT OF GENERAL SCHOFIELD. THE PRESIDENT and the MISSOURI RADICALS. THE PRESIDENT TO THE MISSOURI COMMITTEE.-THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL SCHOFIELD. THE PRESIDENT AND THE CHURCHES.-LETTER TO ILLINOIS. -THE ELECTIONS OF 1863. THE Condition of affairs in Missouri had been somewhat peculiar, from the very outbreak of the rebellion. At the outset the Executive Department of the State Government was in the hands of men in full sympathy with the secession cause, who, under pretence of protecting the State from domestic violence, were organizing its forces for active co-operation with the rebel movement. On the 30th of July, 1861, the State Convention, originally called by Governor Jackson, for the purpose of taking Missouri out of the Union, but to which the people had elected a large majority of Union men, declared all the Executive offices of the State vacant, by reason of the treasonable conduct of the incumbents, and appointed a Provisional Government, of which the Hon. H. R. Gamble was at the head. He at once took measures to maintain the national authority within the State. He ordered the troops belonging to the rebel Confederacy to withdraw from it, and called upon all the citizens of the State to organize for its defence, and for the preservation of peace within its borders. He also issued a proclamation, framed in accordance with the following suggestions from Washington: WASHINGTON, August 8, 1861. To His Excellency Gov. GAMBLE, Governor of Missouri : In reply to your message, addressed to the President, I am directed to to say, that if, by a proclamation, you promise security to citizens in arms, who voluntarily return to their allegiance, and behave as peaceable and loyal men, this Government will cause the promise to be respected. SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War. Two days after this, Governor Jackson, returning from Richmond, declared the State to be no longer one of the United States; and on the 2d of November, the legislature, summoned by him as Governor, ratified a compact, by which certain commissioners, on both sides, had agreed that Missouri should join the rebel Confederacy. The State authority was thus divided-two persons claiming to wield the Executive authority, and two bodies, also, claiming to represent the popular willone adhering to the Union, and the other to the Confederacy in organized rebellion against it. This state of things naturally led to wide-spread disorder, and carried all the evils of civil war into every section and neighbor hood of the State. To these evils were gradually added others, growing out of a division of sentiment, which afterwards ripened into sharp hostility, among the friends of the Union within the State. One of the earliest causes of this dissension was the action and removal of General Fremont, who arrived at St. Louis, to take command of the Western Department, on the 26th of July, 1861. On the 31st of August he issued a proclamation, declaring that circumstances, in his judgment, of sufficient urgency, rendered it necessary that "the Commanding General of the Department should assume the administrative power of the State," thus superseding entirely the authority of the civil rulers. He also proclaimed the whole State to be under martial law, declared that all persons taken with arms in their hands, within the designated lines of the Department, should be tried by court-martial, and, if found guilty, shot; and confiscated the property and emancipated the slaves of "all persons who should be proved to have taken an active part with the enemies of the United States." This latter clause, transcending the authority conferred by the Confiscation Act of Congress, was subsequently modified by order of the President of the United States.* On the 14th of October, after a personal inspection of affairs in that Department by the Secretary of War, an order was issued from the War Department, in effect censuring General Fremont for having expended very large sums of the public money, through agents of his own appointment, and not responsible to the Government; requiring all contracts and disbursements to be made by the proper officers of the army; directing the discontinuance of the extensive fieldworks which the General was erecting around St. Louis and Jefferson City, and also the barracks in construction around his head-quarters; and also notifying him that the officers to whom he had issued commissions would not be paid until those commissions should have been approved by the President. On the 1st of November, General Fremont entered into an agreement with General Sterling Price, commanding the rebel forces in Missouri, by which each party stipulated that no further arrests of citizens should be made on either side for the expression of political opinions, and releasing all who were then in custody on such charges. On the 2d of November, General Fremont was relieved from his command in the Western Department, in consequence of his action in the matters above referred to, his command devolving on General Hunter, to whom, as soon as a change in the command of the Department had been decided on, the President had addressed the following letter: WASHINGTON, October 24, 1861. SIR:-The command of the Department of the West having devolved upon you, I propose to offer you a few suggestions, knowing how hazardous it is to bind down a distant commander in the field to specific lines of operation, as so much always depends on the knowledge of localities and passing events. It is intended, therefore, to leave considerable margin for the exercise of your judgment and discretion. The main rebel army (Price's) west of the Mississippi is believed to have passed Dade County in full retreat upon Northwestern Arkansas, *See page 208. |