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all who have enough of independence in their natures to express disapprobation of his policy, or we must actively oppose that policy. We must consent, in order that his imperial will shall have undisputed sway, that the judicial ermine shall be trampled beneath his unhallowfeet, or we must determine to maintain the principles of liberty as expounded by the judicial tribunals.

judge of the alarm and condemnation with
which the Union-loving citizens of Kentucky-
the State with whose popular sentiment I am
best acquainted-have read this proclamation.
The hope is earnestly indulged by them as it
is by myself that this paper was issued under the
pressure of military necessity which Gen. Fre-ed
mont believed justified the step, but that in the
particulars specified it has not your approbation
and will not be enforced in derogation of law.
The magnitude of the interest at stake, and my
extreme desire that by no misapprehension of
your sentiments or purposes shall the power and
fervor of the loyalty of Kentucky be at this mo-
ment abated or chilled, must be my apology for
the frankness with which I have addressed you,
and for the request I venture to make of an
expression of your views upon the points of
General Fremont's proclamation on which I
have commented. I have the honor to be, very
respectfully, your obedient servant,

His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

J. HOLT.

President of the United States.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Sept. 12, 1861. HON. JOSEPH HOLT:-Dear Sir: Yours of this day in relation to the late proclamation of General Fremont, is received. Yesterday I addressed a letter to him, by mail, on the same subject, and which is to be made public when he receives it. I herewith send you a copy of that letter, which perhaps shows my position as distinctly as any new one I could write. I will thank you not to make it public until General Fremont shall have had time to receive the original. Your obedient servant,

Doc. 44.

A. LINCOLN.

GENERAL BUCKNER'S ADDRESS

SEPTEMBER 12, 1861.

THE following address to the "freemen of Kentucky" was picked up by a Union soldier on the late battle field near Mill Spring:

To the Freemen of Kentucky:

We must aid him in reviving the lettre de cachet, that instrument of tyranny which banishes his political victims to the prisons of his numerous Bastiles; or, like the men of another day, we must wipe away these relics of barbarism which the advocate of free speech has revived as a means of enslaving us. We must sustain an usurped tyranny which has no affiliation with the Constitution or with justice, or we must resist the application of the fetters with which he seeks to bind us. We must lay our lives, our fortunes, our honor, our liberty at his feet, in order that he may consent to be the master of willing slaves, or, like men who at least are descended from freemen, we must with our own arms make good our claim to a legitimate parentage. These, freemen of Kentucky, are the issues which have been forced upon us.

Hitherto Kentucky has been, to a great extent, exempt from the evils with which the President has sought to afflict our sister Southern States. We have been lulled with the syren song of peace into a lethargy from which it was hoped we would not awake. We have been told that the armies of despotism which are to encamp upon our soil will not crush a petal of the most delicate flower, or bruise a blade of grass that decorates our fields; yet wherever they have gone, though in some instances commanded by soldiers unsurpassed in the best qualities of men, their course is marked by desolation, and lighted by the flames of burning fields and houses. It might rather be said of them, as of the hosts of Attila, that where they once pass the grass never grows. The President promised peace to our mother, Virginia; he promised peace to our daughter, Missouri; he now sings in our ears the delusive sound. It is the peace which reigns in his water-girt Bastiles; it is the peace which is found in the graves of his victims.

The condition of the country renders it unnecessary that I should offer any apology for addressing you. An issue has been forced upon Freemen of Kentucky! we have been slow to every citizen of Kentucky by the edict of Abra-oppose the usurpations of Abraham Lincoln. ham Lincoln. We are told that we must be for or against him. We must give our active support to his arbitrary acts, or we must oppose them. We must aid him in overthrowing the Constitution of the United States, or we must oppose his usurpations. We must aid him in building upon the ruins of the fair fabric of constitutional liberty a despotic authority as arbitrary as that of an Oriental despot, or we must battle like men for the preservation of the principles of liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. We must be his instruments to drag from their homes, and immure in his numerous dungeons,

We have heard his promises that he would observe the neutrality of Kentucky, and we have heard the echoed reassurances of his chosen instruments. We have seen the lawless military organizations which for months he has been engaged in introducing among us, to overawe the true sentiment of Kentucky. We have witnessed the clandestine introduction among us of arms and munitions, and the establishment, in defiance of the Constitution, of his military camps to subjugate us to the will of a Northern fanaticism. We have seen a portion of our own people, while preaching peace and good-will to

ward ourselves and our brethren of the South, | from the homes of those whose sons now show drawing from beneath the cloak of neutrality their gratitude by returning to enslave us. the assassin dagger, which is aimed to pierce our hearts. When its point is already at our breast, this mask is at last thrown aside, and we suddenly find a son of Kentucky, a gentleman distinguished in history, but now a willing servant to execute the will of his master, coming among us to direct the blow which other slaves have prepared. When our own Legislature, disregarding every obligation imposed upon them by justice, humanity, and the Constitution, have stripped us of the defences which they were bound to throw around us; when the gold of Philip has opened the gates of Athens; when her guardians, equally influenced by craven fear and by venal avarice, have, as they think, exposed the fair form of Kentucky an easy prey to the ravisher, this gentleman now steps forward from his chosen place in history to rivet the chains which are intended to make her the victim and the slave of lustful ambition.

Men of Kentucky! are we indeed slaves, that we are thus to be dragged in chains at the feet of despotic power? Are the virtues of our ancestors buried with them in their graves? Must our loyalty to constitutional liberty be measured only by our servility to the tools of acknowledged enemies? Shall we bend our trembling knees before this modern Gesler, and bow to the tyrant's cap, which is held up as the object of our worship? Were our liberties given us but to be trampled beneath the feet of Abraham Lincoln? Has God so stamped his ignoble brow and meagre intellect with his special seal, that we are fit for no higher uses than to obey his mandates and to fill his dungeons?

Let us rise, freemen of Kentucky! and show that we are worthy of our sires. Let us show the matrons of Kentucky that they are still the mothers of men. Let our wives still regard us as their protectors from the atrocities with which they are threatened. Let the fair maidens of our beautiful land be convinced by your deeds that the youth of the "dark and bloody ground" are worthy alike of the smiles which they bestow upon you living and of the tears with which they may water your patriot graves. Though we may ignobly bend our necks to receive the galling yoke of a Northern despotism, shall we not raise an arm to defend the proud women of Kentucky from the fate which is impending over them?

Citizens of Kentucky! we who are now contending for freedom and for constitutional liberty, have been true and loyal in our observance of the Constitution. It is not we who have trampled its principles beneath our feet, and called into being a military despotism which threatens the existence of civil liberty. We revered the Constitution as the ark of civil liberty. We loved the Union as the means of perpetuating its principles. When the Union ceases to accomplish that end, and instead, serves only as the means of founding a military despotism, it is the destruction of the Constitution. The Constitution being destroyed by those whose tyranny we resist, we adbere still to the iminu table principles on which it is based. We have compromised these principles only to preserve peace in Kentucky. The apologists of Abraham Lincoln have construed our love of peace into cowardice, and have brought to bear upon us the hand of despotic power. With the poignard at our breast, they expect us to caress the hand of the assassin, and to lick the dust from the iron heel of tyranny, which is raised to crush us.

Freemen of Kentucky! whatever our former opinions, let us unite on the principles of civil liberty. Though an infuriated North-in order to reduce our land to the condition of a subject Roman province-may rear above the ruins of the Constitution the rude fabric of military despotism, let us recognize still as paramount the holy principles of civil liberty which God and our fathers have given us. We recognize in no body the right to oppress us. Neither the President of the United States, nor the servile Congress which assembled to register his edicts, nor the Legislature of Kentucky, which has sold for gold and executive favor the birthright of our freedom, have the authority to snatch from us our God-given heritage of liberty.

Freemen of Kentucky! let our objects be distinctly known. We make no war upon the Union. We defend the principles of the Constitution against the fanatics who have destroyed the Union. We make no war upon our brethren of Kentucky who have been seduced into alliance with that fanaticism. We defend ourselves only from the assaults of those who would tear from us the holy principles of liberty, without which there can be no Union. We make no war upon our brethren of the North. We seek only to repel their efforts to subjugate us to the condition of their political serfs and vassals.

For one, I will enter the lists of freedom. I love the wild hills and beautiful valleys of my native land. Your sires and mine won them from the savage. It devolves on us to defend The Federal forces were already encamped them from the invasions of a scarcely less mer- upon our soil, threatening not only our liberty, ciless foe, whose hyena-like yells call for the ex- but the liberty of the South. As a matter puretermination of our people. We will not yield ly of self-defence, the Confederates now occupy without a struggle our lovely land to be despoil- a few points in our Southern border. They ed by the fanatical hordes of the north. With offer no molestation to our people. They will the help of God, whose aid we implore in our withdraw whenever the Federal forces withholy cause, we will beat back the invaders from draw, or whenever the State of Kentucky takes our shores, as our fathers beat back the savage | it upon herself to keep out both parties equally.

The people of Kentucky have been honest in their professions of neutrality. Political adventurers who control the Legislature have alone used neutrality as the cup from which they might pour their deadly distillation of Northern hatred, which, like the poison of the upas, was to infect our land with death and disaster. Let us commend the ingredients of their poisoned chalice to their own lips. Let the people of Kentucky take their fate in their own hands. Let us unite as one man to expel from our land the Northern forces who refuse to retire.

Our people do not want them here. Let them leave us to the peace which they promised us, and the Confederate forces will likewise leave us. For one, I have alike refused office from the North or from the South, because the position of my State was respected. But when a revolutionary and despotic faction invade our soil to aid in the destruction of our liberties by the minions of a Northern race who have no interest and no sympathy in common with Kentucky, let us seek friends and allies among those of common blood and sympathies, and interests and institutions.

Freemen of Kentucky, let us stand by our own lovely land. Join with me in expelling from our firesides the armies which an insane despotism sends among us to subjugate us to the iron rule of Puritanical New England. Let the sons of Kentucky-the descendants of those gallant men whose names adorn the brightest pages of our history-decide the fate of our own State. Our banner has floated proudly wherever it has been displayed. Under it we have fought the battles of the country in the North and in the South. Under its folds our fathers drove back the savage from the homes of infant Indiana and Ohio. In gratitude, the sons of those whose fathers were rescued by ours from the tomahawk and the scalping knife return to drag us in chains at the feet of a relentless despotism, which is already pressing heavily upon themselves. When in the hour of our country's peril the extreme North slunk away from the raging contest, thousands of Kentuckians poured into the frozen North to fight on British soil the battles of New England. In return she sends us her hosts of fanatics to despoil us of our homes and of our liberties, and through William H. Seward she invites the outcasts of all nations to join in the carnival of blood. Let us once more fling to the breeze the proud standard of Kentucky. In every valley and on every hill-top let its folds be kissed by the breezes of Heaven. Let our lone star shine, an emblem of hope, from the deep sky-blue of our banner, over the brothers who join in the grasp of friendship; and let the soldier's motto of our State bespeak, under the Providence of God, the strength of the cause which He commits to our hands.

RUSSELLVILLE, Ky., Sept. 12, 1861.

VOL. III.-Doc. 10

S. B. BUCKNER.

Doo. 45.

THE KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS,

ADOPTED SEPTEMBER 12, 1861.

Resolved, That Kentucky's peace and neutrality have been wantonly violated, her soil has been invaded, the rights of her citizens have been grossly infringed by the so-called Southern Confederate forces. This has been done without cause; therefore

Be it resolved by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, That the Governor be requested to call out the military force of the State to expel and drive out the invaders.

Resolved, That the United States be invoked to give aid and assistance, that protection against invasion which is granted to each one of the States by the fourth section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States.

Resolved, That Gen. Robert Anderson be, and he is hereby requested to enter immediately upon the active discharge of his duties in this military district.

Resolved, That we appeal to the people of Kentucky by the ties of patriotism and honor, by the ties of common interest and common defence, by the remembrances of the past, and by the hopes of future national existence, to assist in repelling and driving out the wanton violators of our peace and neutrality, the lawless invaders of our soil.

Doc. 46.

FREMONT'S MANUMISSION DEEDS. FREMONT'S PROCLAMATION.

HEAD-QUARTERS WESTERN DEPARTMENT OF THE

U. S. ARMY, St. Louis, Sept. 12, 1861. THE Major-General Commanding the Westthat Thomas L. Snead, of the City and County ern Department, having satisfactory evidence of St. Louis, and State of Missouri, has been taking active part with the enemies of the United States in the present insurrectionary movement against its Government; and the Military Commission, now in session at the Arsenal in this city, having reported the fact to these headquarters as the result of its deliberations, the ordered to be published the following Deeds of Major-General Commanding has executed and

Manumission:

DEED OF MANUMISSION.

Whereas, Thomas L. Snead, of the City and County of St. Louis, State of Missouri, has been taking active part with the enemies of the United States, in the present insurrectionary movement against the Government of the United States; now, therefore, I, John Charles Fremont, Major-General Commanding the Western Department of the Army of the United States, by authority of law, and the power vested in me as such Commanding General, declare Frank Lowis, heretofore held to "service or labor" by said Thomas L. Snead, to be free and for

ever discharged from the bonds of servitude, | Seventh Brigade in the battle of the 21st and giving him full right and authority to have, use, 22d inst., with the enemy at Leesburg, Va.: and control his own labor, or service, as to him On Saturday night, the 19th inst., about may seem proper, without any accountability seven o'clock P. M., the enemy commenced a whatever to said Thomas L. Snead, or any one to heavy cannonading from three batteries, one claim by, through, or under him. And this deed playing on my intrenchment, (known as Fort of manumission shall be respected and treated Evans,) one on the Leesburg turnpike, and one by all persons, and in all courts of justice, as on Edwards' Ferry. Heavy firing was also the full and complete evidence of the freedom heard in the direction of Dranesville. of said Frank Lewis.

In testimony whereof, this act is done at the head-quarters of the Western Department of the Army of the United States, in the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri, on the 12th day of September, A. D. 1861, as is evidenced by the Departmental seal hereto affixed by my order. J. C. FREMONT, Major-General Commanding.

DEED OF MANUMISSION.

At twelve o'clock at night I ordered my entire brigade to the burnt bridge on the turnpike. The enemy had been reported as approaching from Dranesville in large force. Taking a strong position on the north side of Goose Creek, I awaited his approach.

Reconnoitring the turnpike on Sunday morning, the courier of General McCall was captured, bearing despatches to General Meade to examine the roads leading to Leesburg. From this prisoner I learned the position of the enemy near Dranesville. During Sunday, the enemy kept up a deliberate fire, without any effect.

Early on Monday morning, the 21st instant, I heard the firing of my pickets at Big Spring, who had discovered that, at an unguarded point, the enemy had effected a crossing, in force of five companies, and was advancing on Leesburg. Captain Duff, of the Seventeenth regiment, immediately attacked him, driving him back, with several killed and wounded.

Whereas, Thomas L. Snead, of the City and County of St. Louis, State of Missouri, has been taking an active part with the enemies of the United States, in the present insurrectionary movement against the Government of the United States; now, therefore, I, John Charles Fremont, Major-General Commanding the Western Department of the Army of the United States, by authority of law and the power vested in me, as such Commanding General, declare Hiram Reed, heretofore held to service or labor by Thomas L. Snead, to be free, and forever discharged from the bonds of servitude, giving him full right and authority to have, use, and control his own labor or service, as to him may seem proper, without any accountability whatever to said Thomas L. Snead, or to any one to claimed four companies of infantry, (two of the by, through, or under him.

On observing the movements of the enemy from Fort Evans, at six A. M., I found that he had effected a crossing both at Edwards' Ferry and Ball's Bluff, and I made preparations to meet him in both positions, and immediately order

Eighteenth, one of the Seventeenth, and one of And this deed of Manumission shall be re- the Thirteenth,) and a cavalry force to relieve spected and treated by all persons, and in all Captain Duff, the whole force under the immecourts of justice, as the full and complete evi-diate command of Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. dence of the freedom of said Hiram Reed.

In testimony whereof, this act is done at head-quarters of the Western Department of the Army of the United States, in the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri, on this 12th day of September, A. D. 1861, as is evidenced by the Departmental seal hereto affixed by my J. C. FREMONT, Major-General Commanding. Done at the office of the Provost-marshal, in the City of St. Louis, this 12th day of September, A. D. 1861, at nine o'clock in the evening of said day.

order.

Witness my hand and seal of office hereto
affixed.
J. MOKINSTRY,
Brigadier-General, Provost-Marshal.

Doc. 47.

Jenifer, who was directed to hold his position till the enemy made further demonstration of his design of attack. This force soon became warmly engaged with the enemy, and drove him back for some distance in the woods.

At about ten o'clock, I became convinced that the main point of attack would be at Ball's Bluff, and ordered Colonel Hunton, with his regiment-the Eighth Virginia Volunteers-to repair immediately to the support of Colonel Jenifer.

I directed Colonel Hunton to form line of battle immediately in the rear of Colonel Jenifer's command, and to drive the enemy to the river; that I would support his right with artillery. About twenty minutes past twelve o'clock M., Colonel Hunton united his command with that of Colonel Jenifer, and both commands soon became hotly engaged with the enemy in his strong position in the woods. Watching carefully the action, I saw the enemy was constantly being reinforced, and, at halfpast two o'clock P. M., ordered Colonel Burt to march his regiment-the Eighteenth Mississippi COLONEL: I beg leave to submit the follow--and attack the left flank of the enemy, while ing report of the action of the troops of the Colonels Hunton and Jenifer attacked him in

THE BATTLE OF LEESBURG, VA.

REBEL OEFICIAL REPORT OF THE ENGAGEMENT.

LEESBURG, VA., Oct. 31, 1861.

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front. On arriving at his position, Colonel Burt | Mill, to rest and be collected in order. Colonel was received with a tremendous fire from the Hunton, with his regiment and two pieces of enemy, concealed in a ravine, and was compel- artillery, was halted at a strong position on the led to divide his regiment to stop the flank south bank of the Sycolin, about three miles movement of the enemy. an interview on Monday night with the comsouth of Leesburg. I would here state that, in missioned officers of the Federal army taken prisoners, I am convinced that they expected to be recaptured either during the night or the next day, and, as the captured officers refused their parole not to take up arms against the Southern Confederacy until duly exchanged, I ordered the whole number to be inmediately marched to Manassas. This parole was only I did not wish to confine them with the privates. offered to give them the liberty of the town, as

At this time-about three o'clock-finding the enemy was in large force, I ordered Colonel Featherston, with his regiment the Seventeenth Mississippi-to repair, at double quick, to the support of Colonel Burt, where he arrived in twenty minutes, and the action became general along my whole line, and was very hot and brisk for more than two hours, the enemy keeping up a constant fire with his batteries on both sides of the river.

At about six o'clock P. M. I saw that my command had driven the enemy near the banks of the Potomac; I ordered my entire force to charge and drive him into the river. charge was immediately made by the whole The command, and the forces of the enemy were completely routed, and cried out for quarter along his whole line. In this charge the enemy was driven back at the point of the bayonet, and many killed by this formidable weapon. In the precipitate retreat of the enemy on the bluffs of the river, many of his troops rushed into the water and were drowned; while many others, in overloading the boats, sunk them, and shared the same fate. The rout nowabout seven o'clock-became complete, and the enemy commenced throwing his arms into the river. During this action, I held Colonel Win. Barksdale, with nine companies of his regiment, the Thirteenth Mississippi, and six pieces of artillery, as a reserve, as well as to keep up a demonstration against the force of the enemy at Edwards' Ferry. At eight o'clock P. M. the enemy surrendered his forces at Ball's Bluff, and the prisoners were marched to Leesburg. I then ordered my brigade (with the exception of the Thirteenth regiment Mississippi, who remained in front of Edwards' Ferry) to retire to the town of Leesburg and rest for the night. On Tuesday morning I was informed by Colonel Barksdale that the enemy was still in considerable force at Edwards' Ferry. I directed him to make a thorough reconnoissance of the position and strength of the enemy and attack him. At two o'clock P. M. he gallantly attacked a much superior force in their intrenchments, driving them to the bank of the river, killing thirty or forty and wounding a considerable number. About sundown, the enemy being strongly reinforced and stationed in rifle pits, Colonel Barksdale wisely retired with his regiment to Fort Evans, leaving a guard of two companies to watch the movements of the enemy, who, evidently expecting a renewed attack, retired during the night and recrossed the river at Edwards' Ferry. morning, finding my brigade very much exOn Wednesday hausted, I left Colonel Barksdale with his regiment, with two pieces of artillery and a cavalry force, as a grand guard, and I ordered the other three regiments to fall back toward Carter's

which lasted nearly thirteen hours, our loss
In the engagement on the 21st of October,
aggregate, was as follows:-
from a force of seventeen hundred and nine,

missioned officers, four wounded; non-commis-
sioned officers, three killed, two wounded;
Eighth regiment Virginia Volunteers.-Com-
privates, five killed, thirty-seven wounded.
Total, eight killed, forty-three wounded. Since
dead of wounds, three privates and one lieu-
tenant taken prisoner.

-Commissioned officers, (22d,) one killed; pri-
Thirteenth regiment Mississippi Volunteers.
killed, two wounded. One private taken pris-
oner.
vates, three killed, two wounded. Total, four

-Commissioned officers, one wounded; pri-
vates, two killed, eight wounded. Total, two
Seventeenth regiment Mississippi Volunteers.
killed, nine wounded.

-Commissioned officers, seven wounded; non-
commissioned officers, two killed, six wounded;
Eighteenth regiment Mississippi Volunteers.
privates, twenty killed, fifty wounded. Total,
twenty-two killed, sixty-three wounded.

and fifty-three. Taken prisoners, two. Total,
one hundred and fifty-five.
Total loss, killed and wounded, one hundred

able to ascertain, was five regiments and three
pieces of artillery at Ball's Bluff, and four regi-
The force of the enemy, as far as I have been
ments, two batteries, and a squadron of cavalry
at Edwards' Ferry, numbering in all about eight
thousand troops. In addition to this force,
three batteries of long range were constantly
firing on my troops from the Maryland side of
the river.

follows: thirteen hundred killed, wounded and
drowned. Captured seven hundred and ten
The loss of the enemy, so far as known, is as
prisoners; fifteen hundred stand of arms; three
pieces of cannon; one stand of colors; a large
number of cartridge boxes, bayonet scabbards,
and a quantity of camp furniture.

Baker, formerly senator from Oregon, and
several other commissioned officers.
Among the killed of the enemy was General

commissioned officers, the names of whom have
already been furnished.
Among the prisoners taken were twenty-two

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