and were not to be called into service until the first class had been exhausted. It was also provided that any person actually drafted might be discharged from draft by furnishing an acceptable substitute, or by paying a sum not exceeding three hundred dollars, to be fixed by the Secretary of War. The entire population of the loyal States, at the breaking out of the war, liable to enrolment under the Conscription law, after deducting all exemptions, was fully four millions. Another act empowered the President to issue letters of marque and reprisal.

On the 15th of June, the President issued a call for one hundred thousand volunteers to repel the invasion by the Confederates. On the 15th of October, the President made a call for three hundred thousand men, those raised to be deducted from the quotas set for the next draft. The deficiencies to be made good by the States by a new draft to be made on January 5, 1864.

The President in December accompanied his message to Congress with a proclamation of amnesty to the Confederates, stating his purpose to be to present the States wherein the national authority had been suspended, and loyal State Governments had been subverted, a mode in and by which the national authority and loyal State Governments might be reinstated. Specified exceptions to the amnesty proclamation were stated.

On the 3d of June, a "peace meeting" was held in New York, instituted by leading Democrats. One of the resolutions passed, declared it was recommended by the meeting, that there should be a suspension of hostilities between the contending armies of the divided sections of the country, and that a convention of the States composing the Confederate States, and a separate convention of the loyal States, be held to finally settle and determine in what manner and by what mode the contending sections should be reconciled.

The

A serious riot broke out in New York on the morning of the 13th of July. At the outset it was a demonstration against the draft, which was then in progress in the ninth district, inhabited mainly by laborers, a great proportion of whom were of foreign birth. They had been wrought to exasperation against the clause in the bill which allowed a person whose name was drawn to purchase exemption by the payment of three hundred dollars. When the drawing commenced on the 13th, a sudden attack was made by an armed mob upon the office. wheel was destroyed, the lists scattered, and the building set on fire. The excitement spread throughout the city, crowds gathered everywhere, with no apparent object; but during the day the movement seemed to be controlled by leaders in two general directions. The first was an attack upon the negroes; the second an assault upon every one who was supposed to be in any way concerned in the draft, or prominently identified with the Republican party. The militia regiments who had always been relied upon to uphold public order in case of emergency, had been sent to Pennsylvania to withstand

1864

the Confederate invasion; and the only guardians left for the public peace were the regular police and a few hundred soldiers who garrisoned the forts. These were too few to protect the dozen miles between the extremities of the city. The mob, dispersed in one quarter, would reassemble at another, and for four days the city seemed given up to their control. The outrages committed during this time were numerous and aggravated. Negroes were assaulted, beaten to death, mutilated, and hanged; building after building was sacked and burned; gangs of desperadoes patrolled the streets, levying contributions, and ordering places of business to be closed. A Colored Orphan Asylum, sheltering some hundreds of children, was sacked and burned. After the first day, the riot, which was at first directed against the draft, took a new turn. The entire mass of scoundrelism in the city seemed to have been let loose for indiscriminate plunder. Women, half-grown boys, and children were foremost in the work of robbery, and no man felt safe from attack. Gradually the bands of rioters were dispersed, and the peace of the city was restored. Fully a hundred persons were killed, and property to an immense amount was destroyed.

Arizona and Idaho were organized under Territorial govern

ments.

The free letter-carrier system went into effect in July.

Five Russian vessels of war arrived at the harbor of New York, the first which ever visited our ports. The officers, on the 1st of October, were publicly welcomed by the city authorities.

The price of Middling Uplands cotton in the New York market, on the 1st of January, was sixty-seven cents; on the 1st of April, seventy-two to seventy-four cents; on the 1st of July, seventy-three to seventy-four cents; and on the 1st of October, eighty-one to eighty-three cents per pound.

The market price of gold on the 1st of January was 1333 to 133; on the 1st of April, 156 to 156; on the 1st of July, 1441 to 144; and on the 1st of October, 1403 to 1423.

Banks, with Porter's gun-boats co-operating, went up Red River, in Louisiana, early this year. He took Natchitoches March 19th, but was defeated at Mansfield April 8th, and Pleasant Hill the 9th. He then abandoned the campaign. General Canby succeeded him in command. From Vicksburg Sherman sent out one force into Eastern Mississippi to cut railroads and burn cotton, in February; and General A. J. Smith led another thither from Tennessee. Forrest made an incursion into Kentucky from the South, unsuccessfully attacking Paducah in March, withdrawing to Tennessee, taking Fort Pillow by storm, slaughtering the garrison, half negroes, and then retreating.

Second in importance only to the advance on Richmond, and first, perhaps, in practical results this year, was the work accomplished by William Tecumseh Sherman. When, in March, Grant was transferred to the supreme command of the

Union armies, the hero of Missionary Ridge was promoted from his charge of the Army of the Tennessee to that of the division of the Central Mississippi, which now included not only his old command and the armies of the Cumberland and the Ohio, but also that of the Arkansas. Sherman was in Memphis at this time. He went East to confer with the lieutenant-general about their future operations, and then proceeded to Chattanooga to lay out his work. He began his march southward early in May, with nearly one hundred thousand men; this number diminished through casualties, and the posting of forces to guard his line of communications. Johnston, in his front with Hardee's, Hood's, and Polk's corps, mustered between fifty thousand and sixty thousand at the outset, but increased those figures somewhat as he fell back. Bragg after his defeat the previous November, had been retired from command in Georgia. Atlanta, an important railroad centre in the heart of that State, and the site of valuable manufactories and machine-shops, was Sherman's objective point. In his advance of one hundred and twenty miles or more he had several severe engagements. There was considerable fighting before Dalton May 7th, but by a flank movement the retirement of Johnston was forced three or four days later. On the 15th a lively contest occurred near Resaca, to which the Confederates had withdrawn. They were finally driven from the town, and the Union advance entered next day. Manoeuvring and fighting near Dallas occupied the next fortnight, at the end of which Johnston was again forced, by being flanked, to retreat. The next stand was made near Kenesaw Mountain and its neighbors, Lost and Pine mountains, twenty miles from Atlanta. The Confederates had here a strong position. Sherman crowded them from the 14th to the 27th of June. On the first day, Polk, the Louisiana bishop and general, was killed by a cannon-ball while making observations with Johnston and Hardee. On the last, Sherman made an attack, which was repulsed with much slaughter. He now resorted to his favorite tactics. A flanking column was thrown onward to the Chattahoochee next day, and at nightfall it compelled an evacuation of the muchcontested Kenesaw. Johnston held the stream until July 10th, and then withdrew inside his formidable intrenchments around Atlanta. He was here deprived of his command for a time by Jefferson Davis, who did not esteem him as highly as others did; and Hood was assigned to the defence of the Gate City. While the Union troops were making another advance, on the 20th, they were repulsed, and General McPherson, commanding one of Sherman's corps, was killed. General John A. Logan succeeded to the command. Sherman again tried to force the enemy on the 22d, and met with another hard blow, though before night he had changed his defeat into victory. His loss, however, was nearly four thousand, while Hood suffered to an even greater extent. Raids for the destruction of railroads were now planned and executed by Sherman. A cavalry expedition to Macon, with a view to liberatę Union prisoners at Andersonville,

was also undertaken by Stoneman, but with disastrous results. On the 27th a flanking force was pushed forward on the Union right, under Howard, now commanding the Army of the Tennessee. Logan's corps caught the worst of the sudden charge with which Hood retaliated. Again and again the Confederates came up, but they were mown down murderously. At length, after a loss estimated at five thousand, Hood ceased to strike, and Howard held his ground. Nearly a month later, after various cavalry raids, Sherman broke camp in front of Atlanta, moved rapidly around by the westward to the south of the city. On the last night of August, the Confederates blew up their magazines, burned their stores, destroyed their machine-shops and foundries, and abandoned the place to Sherman. During the next few weeks, by aggressive raids to the northward, Hood threatened most of the Union posts all the way up to Resaca, but Sherman reinforced and saved them. He would not, however, allow himself to be drawn out of the State. Hood at length withdrew into Northern Alabama.

Mobile was a point of great interest this season. The city is at the head of a bay thirty miles or more long and from ten to twenty miles wide. Long sand-bars nearly close the entrance, with an opening between them not more than two miles across. This was guarded by Fort Gaines on the west and Fort Morgan on the right. Before this gateway Admiral Farragut, who had conducted the conquest of New Orleans two years before, appeared on August 4th. He had a fleet of fourteen men-ofwar, besides four iron-clads. The wooden vessels were fastened together in couples, and Farragut was lashed to the masthead of the flag-ship Hartford more easily to superintend the action. Next day the fleet ran the gauntlet of the forts, and encountered the fire of several Confederate vessels inside the bay, returning the attack with great spirit. The engagement was furious, and the air was filled with cannon-balls. One Federal iron-clad, the Tecumseh, was sunk by a torpedo ; but a rebel gun-boat was driven ashore, and another put to flight up the bay. The rebel ram Tennessee, however, proved a formidable antagonist, and only after several wooden vessels had damaged themselves by butting her, and the iron-clads had come to the rescue, was she forced to surrender. Farragut now devoted himself to the land forces. On the 9th he compelled Fort Gaines to surrender, and on the 22d Fort Morgan followed. No attempt was made at this time to capture the city of Mobile, although Sherman had hoped it would be done, and a supporting column thrown out to co-operate with him in Georgia. But an important port into which blockade-runners were bringing supplies was effectually closed up, and Farragut added to his laurels.

In November, Sherman began his famous " March to the Sea," a movement of singular boldness. Having sent his sick back to Chattanooga, and reinforced Thomas at Nashville, he destroyed the remaining ironworks in Atlanta, tore up all the neighboring railroads, cut the telegraph-wire which had taken his messages to Washington, and, on the 14th, started southeast

ward. He formed two columns, under Generals Howard and Blair, with cavalry out on the wings, and advanced without meeting much resistance. He rendered all railroads useless, and subsisted on the country through which he passed. By spreading out over a broad region, he concealed his strength and position, and misled the enemy as to his plans. No great concentration against him was therefore practicable. Finally, on December 10th, he reached the rear of Savannah. Already Union troops held Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of Savannah River. The town was now in peril, and on the 20th Hardee abandoned it and moved up to Charleston. Sherman took possession two days later. This result of the mysterious and risky disappearance from Atlanta awakened great enthusiasm in the North.

As had been anticipated, Hood, in Northern Alabama, organized a campaign against Nashville even before Sherman started for the sea. But Thomas was amply warned and well supported. Sherman had perfect confidence in his lieutenant, and this was justified by the event. Hood, first crushing Schofield at Franklin, advanced to the capital of Tennessee. Here, falling upon him December 15th, Thomas routed him completely, taking twenty-five thousand prisoners. Bragg, with a mere handful of men, escaped to Alabama.

Grant was made lieutenant-general March 2d, and placed in command of all the Union armies. Having laid out Sherman's campaign, as nearly as he could in advance, he took the offensive himself in Virginia in May. Accompanying Meade's veterans of the Army of the Potomac, he advanced from Culpepper on the 3d. Just south of the Rapidan, in the Wilderness, not far from the battlefield of Chancellorsville, he met Lee on the 5th, and for three days, with stubborn energy and awful slaughter, he fought the Confederates there, but could not drive them from their intrenchments. Not discouraged by their resistance, nor by any possible criticism of his sacrifice of life, he declared that he meant to "fight it out on this line if it took all summer." He now moved to the left, and, beginning again on the 9th, he renewed the attack at Spottsylvania Court-House, fighting for four days. Here Hancock took four thousand prisoners one day. Advancing further to the left, Grant renewed the struggle at Cold Harbor, June 1st, and continued it three days. Up to date he had lost sixty thousand men, and Lee thirty-five thousand. Unable to turn Lee's flank and get at Richmond from the north, he decided to push on and attack from the south. At Bermuda Hundred, June 15th, he joined Butler, who, with the Army of the James, had pushed up from Fortress Monroe, and approached Petersburg. Lee came to its defence before a severe blow had been struck. Sheridan's cavalry carefully examined the whole Confederate line from north of Richmond to south of Petersburg to find a weak spot without avail. Near the latter town, July 30, under a Confederate fort, a mine was exploded, and colored troops were then pushed into the gap to break the line, but without success,