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“Racial Apocalypse is an original exploration of how concepts of race
emerged in early modern Spain and England through the belief that Christ
would establish an eternal kingdom. Villagrana illustrates how a form of
white supremacy emerges as Spanish and English Christians struggled to
understand how indigenous peoples and Black Africans might be incorpo-
rated into the kingdom of God. This book will importantly add to our
understanding of how religious doctrine informs racial formation and
racism.”
Dennis Austin Britton, University of New Hampshire

“Villagrana brings English and Spanish colonial and apocalyptic

narratives—rationalizing rhetoric about providential preference and racial
hierarchy—into conversation, revising in the process our view of race in the
premodern era and advancing premodern critical race studies in crucial
ways.”
Patricia Akhimie, Rutgers University, Newark

“This book is an important addition to critical conversations about race in

the early modern era. Not only does it provide a compelling comparative
reading of processes of racialization involving Spanish, British, American
Indigenous and Black African cultures, the book debunks popular notions
that racialized thinking of the era primarily came out of fears and anxieties
about European encounters with foreign cultures. Villagrana makes a
strong case that race also was predicated on a sense of hope, of optimism
as England, in particular, understood racialization as the fulfillment of
biblical prophecy. The book provides wonderfully nuanced readings of the
ways in which religion, appearing most often in terms of apocalyptic
discourse, was bound up with racial formations and vice versa.”
Cassander L. Smith, University of Alabama
Racial Apocalypse

This book reveals the relationship between apocalyptic thought, political

supremacy, and racialization in the early modern world. The chapters in
this book analyze apocalypse and racialization from several discursive and
geopolitical spaces to shed light on the ubiquity and diversity of apocalyptic
racial thought and its centrality to advancing political power objectives
across linguistic and national borders in the early modern period.
By approaching race through apocalyptic discourse, this volume not only
exposes connections between the pursuit of political power and apocalyptic
thought, but also contributes to defining race across multiple areas of
research in the early modern period, including colonialism, English and
Hispanist studies, and religious studies.

José Juan Villagrana is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative

Literature at San José State University.
Routledge Critical Junctures in Global Early Modernities

Series Editors: Nicholas R. Jones, Bucknell University and

Derrick Higginbotham, University of Hawai’i at Manoa

Routledge Critical Junctures in Global Early Modernities focuses on

archives—historical, literary, visual—that link the analytics of critical
theory and cultural studies to the early modern period in locations across
the globe from 1400 to 1700. The series publishes monographs and/or
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expression, and visual ideations from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe,
and/or the South Pacific speak into or resonate with contemporary debates
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the purpose not only of scrutinizing their socio-political meanings, but also
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within and outside of Europe.

Pornographic Sensibilities
Imagining Sex and the Visceral in Premodern and Early Modern Spanish
Cultural Production
Edited by Nicholas R. Jones and Chad Leahy

Racial Apocalypse
The Cultivation of Supremacy in the Early Modern World
José Juan Villagrana

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Racial Apocalypse
The Cultivation of Supremacy in the
Early Modern World

José Juan Villagrana

First published 2022
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 José Juan Villagrana
The right of José Juan Villagrana to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested

ISBN: 9780367774578 (hbk)

ISBN: 9781032268033 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003171478 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003171478

Typeset in Sabon
by Taylor & Francis Books
Contents

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction: “All nations and kindreds” 1

1 Apocalypse and Racial Assimilation in Spanish Colonial Texts:
Motolinía, Mendieta, and Acosta 25
2 Goths and Magog: Asserting and Disputing Spanish Global
Supremacy in Spanish Ethnic Origin Myths and English Black
Legend Polemic 79
3 Making a Prophet: Greville, Sidney, Drake, and the Cultivation
of English Colonial Supremacy 111
Coda: The Legacy of Apocalyptic Racism 148

Bibliography 154
Index 169
Acknowledgements

I appreciate the mentorship of Regina Schwartz, Reginald Gibbons, and

Christine Froula at Northwestern, and Emilie Bergmann, David Marno,
David Landreth, Genaro Padilla, Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, and James
Grantham Turner at Berkeley. I thank them especially for their encourage-
ment to pursue comparative literary study and translation in early modern
English and Spanish.
I have benefitted intellectually and professionally from the welcoming
environment created by the colleagues at the International Sidney Society—
Mary Ellen Lamb, Timothy D. Crowley, and Rob Stillman. The intellectual
framework for this project was informed by my conversations with collea-
gues from a number of disciplines at conferences convened by the Arizona
Center for Medieval Studies RaceB4Race symposia, the Renaissance Society
of America, and the Modern Language Association. I warmly thank for
their expertise Patricia Akhimie, Dennis A. Britton, David Sterling Brown,
Margaret Rich Greer, Kelsey Ihinger, Jennifer Lorden, and Raphael
Magarik.
It has been an honor to be part of a peer working group alongside
Alejandro Olayo-Méndez, SJ, Gabriel Rodríguez, and Jesús Tirado orga-
nized through the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity.
Thank you for our frank discussions and joyful exchanges.
From my time at Bates College, I value the support and fellowship of
Laurie O’Higgins, Baltasar Fra-Molinero, Lillian Nayder, Eden Osucha,
Steve Dillon, Sylvia Federico, Sanford Freedman, Cristina Malcolmson (in
memorium), Tiffany Salter, Myronn Hardy, and Therí A. Pickens. I extend
my thanks to the colleagues in the Department of English and Comparative
Literature at San José State University for welcoming me into the department
and enthusiastically receiving my research agenda. I further wish to
acknowledge the College of the Humanities and the Arts at San José State
for funding this project.
I am deeply grateful to Christina Bell and Chris Schiff, librarians at
Bates, for facilitating the acquisition of research materials during the early
stages of this project. Emily Chan and Peggy Cabrera, librarians at San José
State, and the colleagues at inter-library loan and circulation, including
 Acknowledgements ix
student workers, have labored diligently to make library materials available
during a global public health emergency. I thank them heartily.
The students at the University of California, Berkeley, Bates College, and
San José State University have been my teachers over these many years.
Their resourcefulness and curiosity are a source of inspiration. Of these
students, I am especially grateful to Mamta Saraogi and Maddie Rozells for
working as research assistants with great skill and dedication.
This book would not be possible if not for the scholarly interest and
engagement from Nicholas R. Jones and Derrick Higginbotham, editors of
the Critical Junctures in Global Early Modernities Routledge series. I thank
them and the anonymous peer reviewers for their helpful suggestions and
comments and for their confidence in the project. I appreciate the work of
Jennifer Abbott, Dominic Corti, Anna Thomas, and Mitchell Manners,
editors at Routledge, for navigating this book through the publication
process.
A section of chapter 2 originally appeared as “The Apocalyptic Spanish
Race” in the Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 20.1 (2020): 1–28. I
would like to thank the University of Pennsylvania Press for permission to
reprint that material here.
I thank Aileen Liu and Spencer Strub for generously reading and
commenting on multiple drafts of this project. Thank you both for our
treasured friendship. Isaac Zisman, Emily Laskin, Linda Louie, Jason
Treviño, Evan Klavon, Aristides Dimitriou, and Brandon White, thank you
for our fellowship.
My family have sustained me with love and laughter. I dedicate this book
to Ana, Walter, Angela, Bruce, Joanna, Lizzie, Marc, the niblings, and to
Rachel.
Introduction
“All nations and kindreds”

Modern systems of racist power emerge from the apocalyptic thought of

the early modern period. This book will trace that emergence. Biblical
apocalyptic works envision a time in the future when social differentiation
will not exist in any meaningful way between those humans that God has
elected to live as his eternal subjects. Within God’s future kingdom, the
elect will enjoy a kind of social parity. Before this time, however, ethno-
national and biological characteristics will mark those who oppose Christ
and are therefore destined for ultimate destruction. The apocalyptic dis-
course maintains that God, the ultimate power in the universe, has
ordained that his chosen people shall defeat their opponents and hold
dominion over the world. Such works synoptically view history from
humanity’s origin through to its end; they predict the rise and fall of earthly
powers; and they distinguish between forces of good and evil according to
ethnic, national, linguistic, and embodied characteristics—the elements that
inform conceptions of race in the premodern era. Racism and racialization,
in turn, are essential to realizing the objectives of universal dominion
according to the political apocalyptic framework by defining who is good,
who is evil, and who may or may not hold universal political dominion.
Early modern colonial works, in particular, channel the discourse of apoc-
alypse and race because these themes speak to the broadest interests of
European colonial expansion, especially claims to territorial possession and
dominion as well as the subjugation of Native peoples and the commerce in
the human chattel of Black Africans. Early modern English and Spanish
authors used the apocalyptic and prophetic biblical works that describe
social disparities between humans based on perceived biological and beha-
vioral differences as a social and political template to subject Native peo-
ples of the Americas, enslave Black Africans, and monopolize commercial
interests by excluding competing European powers. I further argue that
instead of viewing racialization as a product of a sense of fear and crisis,
especially as it pertains to early modern Anglo-Spanish relations, racializa-
tion should be viewed as the product of optimistic and opportunistic
apocalyptic beliefs about political hegemony. In effect, apocalyptic thinking
is race thinking and vice versa.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003171478-1
2 Introduction
Racial Apocalypse: The Cultivation of Supremacy in the Early Modern
World examines early modern English and Spanish authors’ use of political-
apocalyptic discourse to assert for their nation, their patrons, or for them-
selves supreme dominion over the American continent, the Native peoples
that inhabited it, the Black Africans that Europeans enslaved to work there,
and their fellow European competitors. I analyze in particular the apoc-
alyptic and prophetic ideologies espoused in sixteenth-century Spanish
colonial reports and chronicles as well as in Elizabethan English Black
Legend polemic. While other studies have noted the centrality of apoc-
alyptic discourse to Spanish colonial literature and to the Anglo-Spanish
conflict, the role of early modern apocalyptic thought as an engine for
racialization has received little attention. For its part, this book places the
critical analysis of race and racism at the center of its discussion of Spanish
colonial apocalyptic thought, the Anglo-Spanish conflict, and the Black
Legend. In my theorization of apocalyptic racialization, I highlight three
signal areas of the broader sixteenth-century discourses of English and
Spanish colonization of the Americas and the Anglo-Spanish conflict.
First, I discuss the colonial accounts of Spanish evangelical activity by the
Franciscans Toribio de Benavente Motolinía and Gerónimo de Mendieta,
and by the Jesuit José de Acosta. Motolinía formed part of the group of
twelve Franciscan friars that Hernán Cortés transported from Spain to
Mexico in 1524. Mendieta followed in 1554 in the subsequent wave of
Franciscan evangelical missions to Mexico. Unlike Motolinía and Men-
dieta, the Jesuit Acosta resided in Peru for most of his time in the Americas,
arriving there in 1572. Although these three authors write from different
places and contexts in sixteenth-century Spanish colonial America, they
commonly focus on evaluating through the lens of apocalyptic prophecy the
bodies and behaviors of Amerindians, Black Africans, and Europeans. They
argue that there are innate differences between these groups, and that these
differences affect how easily each of these groups can be Christianized and
civilized, in the case of the Amerindians and Black Africans, or, in the case
of the Europeans, be improved in discipline and faith. Motolinía and
Mendieta were guided in large part by Jesus’ apocalyptic pronouncements
in the Gospels, particularly Jesus’ promise that the consummation of the
world and the arrival of a just future kingdom would occur after Jesus’
message was published to all nations of the world in all languages. In their
accounts of evangelization in Mexico, the Franciscans regard Native peo-
ples’ languages, their social and religious customs, and their perceived bio-
logical and behavioral traits as obstacles to realizing Jesus’ charge to his
disciples. Acosta vehemently rejects the position held by Motolinía and
Mendieta that Spanish efforts to Christianize the people of the world were
anywhere near their advanced stages. Centered on his observations of nat-
ural philosophy, geography, and biblical history, Acosta maintains that
Europeans’ increasing encounters with more peoples and languages
throughout the world previously unknown to them dilates the timeframe of
 Introduction 3
evangelical labor necessary to disseminate the Gospel to all peoples of the
world. Besides the diversity and amount of peoples in the world, Acosta
argues, there is an apparent disparity between different nations and peoples
in terms of their civility. As such, Acosta’s works routinely degrade Black
Africans as uncultivated people. At the same time, he holds up Christia-
nized Black Africans as evidence that greater evangelical efforts from
Spanish missionaries can cultivate not only Black Africans but also
Amerindians.
Second, I consider the role of political supremacy in the apocalyptic
racialization operating in English Black Legend polemic and in Spanish
chronicles. The Black Legend is the name Julián Juderías, an early twen-
tieth-century Spanish historian and journalist, gives to the body of polemic
literature primarily originating in England in the sixteenth century that
racializes the Spaniard as incorrigibly cruel, bloodthirsty, and greedy. To
racialize the Spaniard as inherently cruel and menacing, English authors
used the Spanish Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas’ account of
Spanish colonial brutality against Amerindians as evidence for their claims.
At the same time, English authors invoked Spain’s internal anxieties about
pureza de sangre, the fixation with Christian-Spanish blood purity in light
of the longstanding presence of Jews and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula.
As this study shows, Spanish sixteenth-century court chroniclers argue that
Charles V and Philip II were entitled to absolute dominion in the Americas,
Europe, the Levant, and Asia because they inherited their claims from
Noah’s preferred descendants that settled the Iberian Peninsula since the
earliest moments after the General Flood described in Genesis. As part of
the broader wave of Black Legend polemic, English writers challenged
Spanish dominance by arguing that Spaniards are in fact descended from
Magog, a branch of Noah’s offspring that is aligned with Satan, and,
according to Ezekiel and Revelation, is justly destined for annihilation. As
such, English polemic predicts that Spain’s dominance will wane while
England’s power, particularly in colonial ventures, will grow, not only
because God favors Protestants over Catholics but also because Spaniards’
blood lineage—their racial background—is corrupted.
Third and finally, from the analysis of Spanish assertions of universal
dominion and English negative racialization of the Spaniards, I turn to a
discussion of how Englishmen racialize each other by invoking prophecy,
family lineage, and embodied virtue to assert one Englishman’s right to
colonial dominance over another’s. Fulke Greville’s biography of his friend,
the renowned English courtier and poet Sir Philip Sidney, argues that
Sidney inherited biological traits that made him the best candidate to dis-
possess Spaniards of their American colonies, and he urges Englishmen of
lower birth to imitate Sidney’s qualities to advance England’s colonial pro-
jects. In particular, Greville fashions Sidney as a prophet who, before his
death resulting from wounds he received fighting Spanish forces in the Low
Countries in 1586, predicted the political fortunes of individuals and
4 Introduction
nations based on their respective perceived inherent traits. If the Sidney-
prophet had not died prematurely, according to Greville, he would have
managed to take the Spanish Main with the help of Black Africans and
Amerindians who escaped Spanish enslavement. In reality, it was the pri-
vateer Sir Francis Drake who forged a temporary alliance with the Cimar-
rones—Black Africans who escaped Spanish enslavement in the Americas
and established their own independent communities—when he raided ports
in Panama in search of gold and silver. In effect, Greville negatively char-
acterizes Drake’s ancestry and his behavioral traits, and he plagiarizes
Drake’s deeds. He then attributes them to Sidney’s foresight because Sidney
is of noble birth while Drake is not.
Although these examples represent a variety of early modern English and
Spanish modes of apocalyptic colonial thought, taken together they espouse
what I term apocalyptic racialization, the imputation of fictional immutable
somatic and behavioral traits to human beings within a universal spatial
and historical context to assign them an imprescindible place in a social
hierarchy in the immediate present moment. I use the term apocalyptic to
denote the biblical and secular ideas that undergird universal supremacy—
the broadest assertions of entitlement to hegemonic political and mercenary
power by a select group—in spatial and temporal terms. Though apoc-
alyptic ideas are numerous and varied, their common trait is that they
speak of events and people in expansive and binary terms—good versus
evil, eternal death versus eternal life, finite history versus universal history.
I therefore define apocalyptic racialization as the process by which groups
or individuals claim universal political supremacy through providential
designations of ancestry and social estate that produce racial fictions to
dispossess others. Put another way, the apocalyptic denotes broad power
objectives, and racialization denotes the racial fictions created to advance
such broad political power objectives. Crucially, apocalyptic racial fictions
of biological and behavioral traits can degrade a person or group, and they
can elevate or ennoble a person or group. Apocalyptic racialization is as
much a means for those claiming hegemonic dominion to create affirmative
racial self-descriptions, as it is a means to create negative racial fictions of
others to justify dispossessing or killing them.
The three chapters that I outline above reflect this project’s contributions
to several fields within the study of early modern literature and culture. In
particular, the structure of my project indicates its efforts further to bridge
English and Hispanist fields of study by parsing first Spanish claims to the
dominion of the Americas through the lens of colonial missionaries’ apoc-
alypticism. The subsequent chapter introduces further Spanish claims to
dominion, and at the same time, it shows how English polemicists contest
it. The final chapter registers English fantasies of dominating the Americas
centered on the figure of Sir Philip Sidney that negates and excludes Spain.
Throughout my analyses, I maintain that racial thought in early modern
England is inextricable from that of Spain.1 Given that justifications for
Another random document with
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from her bow and stern chasers. We fully realized this last night; for,
as we got within short range, the enemy poured into us a terrible fire
of grape and canister, which we were not slow to return—our guns
being double-shotted, each with a stand of both grape and canister.
Every vessel in its turn was exposed to the same fiery ordeal on
nearing the centre battery, and right promptly did their gallant tars
return the compliment. This was the hottest part of the engagement.
We were literally muzzle to muzzle, the distance between us and the
enemy’s guns being not more than twenty yards, though to me it
seemed to be only as many feet.
“Matters had gone on in this way for nearly an hour and a half—
the first gun having been fired at about half past eleven o’clock—
when, to my astonishment, I heard some shells whistling over our
port side. Did the rebels have batteries on the right bank of the river?
was the query that naturally suggested itself to me. To this the
response was given that we had turned back. I soon discovered that it
was too true. Our return was, of course, more rapid than our passage
up. The rebels did not molest us much, and I do not believe one of
their shots took effect while we were running down rapidly with the
current. It was a melancholy affair, for we did not know but what the
whole expedition was a failure; neither could we tell whether any of
our vessels had been destroyed, nor how many. We had the
satisfaction of learning soon afterward, however, that the Hartford
and Albatross had succeeded in rounding the point above the
batteries. All the rest were compelled to return. As I passed the
machinery of the vessel, on my way forward, I was shown a large hole
that had been made by an eighty-pounder solid conical shell, which
had passed through the hull of the ship, damaging the machinery so
as to compel us to return.”
During the naval combat, General Banks marched three divisions
of his army from Baton Rouge, to a point within seven miles of Port
Hudson, where after engaging in a skirmish with the enemy, with
trifling loss, they returned to their starting point. Being unprepared
as yet to undertake the capture of Port Hudson, General Banks now
turned his attention to that portion of the State west of New Orleans,
and bordering on the Teche river. This diversion, it was afterward
discovered, would have been made unnecessary, had General Banks
possessed the means of learning the exact force of the rebels at Port
Hudson, which was by no means so formidable as he had reason for
believing.
The Teche river is a tortuous stream rising in St. Landry parish,
and flowing southwardly. On its bank are the towns of Franklin,
Martinsville, and Opelousas. General Weitzel had previously made
an unsuccessful expedition up that river, and to guard against further
invasion a considerable rebel force was now posted in that region,
and heavy earthworks were thrown up in the vicinity of Patersonville.
The district of country bordering on the Teche, comprised the
parishes of Terrebonne, Lafourche, Assumption, St. Mary, and St.
Martin, rich in agricultural wealth, and having a large slave
population. This district had furnished valuable supplies to the rebel
army.
 OPERATIONS ON THE TECHE AND
ATCHAFALAYA RIVERS, LA.
April 13–20, 1863.

General Banks having concentrated his forces at Brashear, General

Weitzel’s brigade was crossed over to Berwick on the 10th of April,
without opposition, followed on the succeeding day by General
Emory’s division, and both commands advanced upon the fortified
position a few miles above Pattersonville. On the 13th, there was
considerable artillery firing, in which the gunboat Diana, a late
Federal capture, took active part. On the 12th, the division of General
Grover left Brashear on the gunboats Clifton, Estrella, Arizona, and
Calhoun, and transports, and proceeded up the Atchafalaya river,
which joins the Teche at Berwick City, into Lake Chetimacha. The
object was to get into the rear of the enemy, and if possible cut off his
retreat if he evacuated his position, or to assail him in rear at the
time of the attack in front. The expedition effected a landing early the
next morning, about three miles west of Franklin, near a spot called
Irish Bend. At this time, the gunboat Queen of the West, which had
been captured previously by the enemy, was blown up and destroyed
on the lake. Skirmishing immediately ensued with a small force of
the enemy, that fell back as General Grover advanced. His position
was about eleven miles distant from General Banks.
 BATTLE OF IRISH BEND, LA.
April 13, 1863.

A correspondent in the army thus describes this battle:

“About seven o’clock A. M., the advance reached the edge of a dense
line of woods near what is known as Irish Bend (a sharp bend of the
Teche), about eleven miles distant from the rebel earthworks, where
General Banks was engaging the enemy. Here our force was met by a
strong one of the rebels, in position, from the banks of the Teche,
across the front and right flank of General Grover’s division. The
enemy was strongly posted at this point, their right flank supported
by artillery, and their left extending round into another wood, in
such a manner as to completely encircle any force which should
simply attack their position in the wood first spoken of.
“Colonel Birge, of the Third Brigade, of General Grover’s division,
at this time in command of the advance, and supported by two
sections of Rogers’s battery, now skirmished with the rebels in front
for about an hour, our skirmishers and their supports engaging the
infantry and dismounted cavalry of the enemy. Colonel Birge then
ordered the Twenty-fifth Connecticut and One Hundred and Fifty-
ninth New York in front of the first skirt of woods. He had no sooner
done this than the enemy commenced a flank attack, endeavoring to
take the section of Rogers’s battery which was on the right. These
two regiments, assailed by a fire on their front and right from an
enemy very perfectly concealed, replied ineffectually to the fire,
became shaken, and finally commenced to fall back, when General
Grover rode up to the front and rallied them, at the same time
ordering General Dwight to hasten up with his brigade. The section
of Rogers’s battery was compelled to limber up and go to the rear,
the fire of the enemy being so lively as to pick off nine cannoneers at
their guns.
 “At this time General Dwight moved on the field with his brigade,
and placed the Sixth New York on his right, in such a manner as to
outflank the enemy’s left, in a similar way that the enemy had
outflanked our right. The Ninety-first New York was ordered in front
to advance against the woods, with the First Louisiana supporting
the Sixth New York, and the Twenty-second Maine and One
Hundred and Thirty-first New York in support of the Ninety-first
New York.
“The order to advance was given, and like veterans they moved
forward across the field, through the woods, and over another field,
the enemy slowly but surely falling back before them; sweeping on,
taking from him all his positions, and finally compelling him to so
hasty a retreat that he left over one hundred prisoners in our hands.
Then the position which Colonel Birge’s brigade failed to take, with a
loss of something over three hundred men, was taken by General
Dwight, with a loss of only seven killed and twenty-one wounded.
“General Dwight was now ordered to halt, take a favorable
position, and hold it. This was done, the enemy continuing to
manœuvre in front of General Dwight’s and Colonel Birge’s
commands, for two or three hours.
“Our troops in the mean time, had been ordered by General Grover
to rest in their places until further orders, which they did until about
three P. M., when an order was given to feel the enemy on the front
and flank, with a view to our attacking their position in force.
“Before any considerable advance further was made the enemy
evacuated, retreating to the woods and canes, having previously set
fire to the gunboat Diana, and transports Gossamer, Newsboy, and
Era No. 2. They were signally repulsed, with a loss of from three to
four hundred. On the field of battle, one hundred and fifty prisoners
were taken, and thirty wounded.
“Among the killed is General Riley, and among the wounded,
Colonel Gray.”
This success of General Grover was followed by the evacuation of
the works before General Banks. Early on Tuesday, the 15th, the
cavalry and artillery, followed by General Weitzel’s brigade, with
Colonel Ingram’s force of General Emory’s division, as a support,
followed the enemy. So rapid was the pursuit that the enemy was
unable to remove their transports at New Iberia, and five, with all the
commissary stores and ammunition with which they were loaded,
were destroyed at that place, together with an incomplete iron-clad
gunboat. On Thursday the army reached New Iberia. A foundry for
the manufacture of cannon and other munitions of war was
immediately taken possession of, and a similar one had been seized
two days before at Franklin. Two regiments were also sent to destroy
the tools and machinery at the celebrated salt mine of the town. Thus
far about fifteen hundred prisoners had been captured, and more
than five hundred horses, mules, and beef cattle taken from the
plantations. The Federal loss was small. The entire force of the
enemy was about ten thousand men.
On the next day, the 17th, the army moved forward, but General
Grover, who had marched from New Iberia by a shorter road, and
thus gained the advance, met the enemy at Bayou Vermilion. Their
force consisted of a considerable number of cavalry, one thousand
infantry and six pieces of artillery, massed in a strong position on the
opposite bank. They were immediately attacked and driven from
their position but not until they had succeeded in destroying by fire
the bridge across the river. The night of the 17th and the next day
was passed in rebuilding the bridge. On the 19th, the march was
resumed, and continued to the vicinity of Grand Coteau; and on the
next day the main force of General Banks occupied Opelousas. At the
same time, the cavalry, supported by a regiment of infantry and a
section of artillery, were thrown forward six miles to Washington, on
the Courtableau. On the 21st, no movement was made, but on the
next day, Brigadier-General Dwight, of General Grover’s division,
with detachments of artillery and cavalry, was pushed forward
through Washington toward Alexandria. He found the bridges over
the Cocodrie and Bœuf destroyed, and during the evening and night
replaced them by a single bridge at the junction of the bayous.
Orders were also found there from General Moore to General Taylor,
in command of the Confederate force, directing him to retreat slowly
to Alexandria, and, if pressed, to retire to Texas.
Bute a la Rose, with its garrison of sixty men, two heavy guns, and
a large quantity of ammunition, was captured by General Banks. The
result of the expedition thus far is thus stated by General Banks: “We
have destroyed the enemy’s army and navy, and made their
reorganization impossible by destroying or removing the material.
We hold the key of the position. Among the evidences of our victory
are two thousand prisoners, two transports, and twenty guns taken,
and three gunboats and eight transports destroyed.” The Federal loss
in the land battle was six or seven hundred.
Admiral Porter took possession of Alexandria on the 6th of May,
without opposition, and General Banks established his headquarters
at that place on the day following. This town is situated on the Red
river, one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth. Admiral Porter
thus describes his operations at this time in a dispatch to Secretary
Welles, dated May 13:

“Sir: I had the honor to inform you from Alexandria of the capture of that place,
and the forts defending the approaches to the city, by the naval forces under my
command. Twenty-four hours after we arrived the advance guard of United States
troops came into the city. General Banks arriving soon after, I turned the place
over to his keeping. The water beginning to fall, I deemed it prudent to return with
the largest vessels to the mouth of the Red river. I dropped down to Fort de Russe
in the Benton, and undertook to destroy these works. I only succeeded however, in
destroying the three heavy casemates commanding the channel and a small water
battery for two guns. About six hundred yards below it I destroyed by bursting one
heavy thirty-two pounder and some gun carriages left in their hurry by the enemy.
“The main fort, on a hill some nine hundred yards from the water, I was unable
to attend to. It is quite an extensive work, new and incomplete, but built with much
labor and pains. It will take two or three vessels to pull it to pieces. I have not the
powder to spare to blow it up. The vessels will be ordered to work on it
occasionally, and it will be soon destroyed. In this last-mentioned fort was
mounted the 11-inch gun, which I am led to believe lies in the middle of the river,
near the fort, the rebels throwing it overboard in their panic at the approach of our
gunboats. The raft which closed the entrance I have blown up, sawed in two, and
presented to the poor of the neighborhood. I sent Commander Woodworth in the
Price, with the Switzerland, Pittsburg, and Arizona, up Black river to make a
reconnoissance, and he destroyed a large amount of stores, valued at three
hundred thousand dollars, consisting of salt, sugar, rum, molasses, tobacco, and
bacon.
(Signed) DAVID D. PORTER,
Acting Rear-Admiral, Commanding Mississippi Squadron.

General Banks now concentrated his troops at Simmesport,

preparatory to an advance on Port Hudson.
 Minor expeditions were meanwhile taking place in other districts
of the department. A brigade under General Nickerson advanced to
the neighborhood of Lake Pontchartrain, destroying some valuable
property, and capturing a few prisoners. A portion of General Auger’s
division penetrated to a point on the railroad between Clinton and
Port Hudson, where they encountered and routed a Confederate
force, killing five and capturing twenty-five. Colonel Grierson was
also successful in an expedition near Port Hudson, capturing three
hundred head of cattle.
Admiral Farragut now in command of the fleet, was preparing to
assist in the attack on Port Hudson. General Banks’s army advanced
about the middle of May from Baton Rouge to Port Hudson, portions
of his army on either bank of the Mississippi, and a part being
forwarded on transports.
On the 21st of May General Banks landed, and on the next day a
junction was effected with the advance of Major-General Augur and
Brigadier-General Sherman. His line occupied the Bayou Sara road.
On this road General Augur had an encounter with a force of the
enemy, which resulted in their repulse with heavy loss. On the 25th
the enemy was compelled to abandon his first line of works. On the
next day General Weitzel’s brigade, which had covered the rear in the
march from Alexandria, arrived, and on the morning of the 27th a
general assault was made on the fortifications.
Three series of batteries extended along the river above Port
Hudson to a point on Thompson’s creek, making a continuous line
about three and a half miles in extent. Above Thompson’s creek is an
impassable marsh, forming a natural defence. From the lower
battery began a line of land fortifications, of semi-circular form,
about ten miles in extent, with Thompson’s Creek for its natural
terminus above.
 ATTACK ON PORT HUDSON, LA.
May 27, 1863.

It having been understood that a grand and simultaneous attack

from every part of the lines encircling Port Hudson was to be made
on Wednesday, the 27th, General Augur, as early as 6 A. M. of that
day, commenced a heavy cannonade upon the works, which
continued incessantly until 2 o’clock, P. M.
At 10 o’clock, General Weitzel’s brigade, with the division of
General Grover—reduced to about two brigades—and the division of
General Emory, temporarily reduced by detachments to about a
brigade, under command of Colonel Paine, with two regiments of
colored troops, made an assault upon the right of the enemy’s works,
crossing Sandy creek, and driving them through the woods into their
fortifications. The fight lasted on this line until 4 o’clock, and was
very severely contested. Brigadier-General Sherman, who intended
to commence his assault at the same time on the left, had his troops
in readiness.
General Augur’s assaulting forces consisted only of Colonel E. P.
Chapin’s brigade, viz., the Forty-eighth Massachusetts, led by
Lieutenant-colonel O’Brien; the Forty-ninth Massachusetts, by
Colonel F. W. Bartlett; the One Hundred and Sixteenth New York,
led by Major Love; and the Twenty-first Maine, by Colonel Johnson;
also two regiments of Colonel Dudley’s brigade, called up from the
right, viz., the Second Louisiana, under Colonel Paine; and parts of
the Fiftieth Massachusetts, under Colonel Messer.
Before commencing the assault Captain Holcomb’s Vermont
battery played upon the works to draw their fire, which he did very
effectively; and then the order for the assault was given. A number of
brave fellows from each regiment had volunteered to go in advance
with the fascines, for the purpose of making a roadway through the
moat; these were immediately followed by others who had
volunteered to form the assaulting party; and after them the various
regiments with their colonels, all under the immediate direction of
Major-General Augur.
The scene that presented itself to the view as the devoted men
emerged from the wood was really appalling. Between them and the
fortifications to be assaulted lay an immense open space, at least a
mile in length, from right to left, and at least half a mile in depth
from the edge of the wood. This space was originally a dense forest,
but the rebels had ingeniously felled the trees, leaving the huge
branches to interlace each other, and forming, with the thick
brushwood underneath, a barrier all but impassable.
It was enough to daunt the stoutest hearts; but the order had been
given that Port Hudson must be taken that day, and the brave men
advanced.
In so horrible a place, where men could scarcely keep their footing,
and were sinking at every step up to their arm-pits, and tumbling
along as best they could with their muskets and fascines through the
impenetrable rubbish—the enemy all the while blazing away at them
with grape, shell, and canister—the result may easily be imagined. It
was wholesale slaughter.
But it was cheering to see the heroism and endurance of the men.
Onward they went—the old flag streaming proudly above them (the
fascine-bearers falling in every direction)—until they actually, many
of them, fought their way through the half mile of tangled rubbish to
the narrow open space between it and the breastworks, where, as a
matter of course, the gallant fellows perished. The unequal contest
lasted from 3 P. M. to 5 P. M., when General Augur, finding it utterly
impossible to carry out the instructions he had received, withdrew
his men in perfect order—returning shot for shot as they got back to
the wood.
A vigorous bombardment of the position had been made by
Admiral Farragut for a week previous to this assault; and
reconnoissances had discovered pretty accurately the nature of these
formidable defences.
 ASSAULT ON PORT HUDSON, LA.
June 14, 1863.

After a bombardment of several days, another assault on Port

Hudson was made on the above date. General Banks deemed it
necessary on this occasion to change the position of his troops, and
they now formed a right and left wing, without the customary centre,
and were joined in the form of a right angle. The division of General
Grover, on the upper side of Port Hudson, extended a distance of
nearly four miles from the river, toward the interior, within
supporting distance of General Augur’s division, which was on the
west side of the fortifications, and extended a distance of three miles
to the river, within hailing distance of the fleet. The defences of the
enemy formed nearly a right angle, both lines of which extended to
the river, and enclosed a sharp bend. The point of attack was the
extreme northeastern angle of the enemy’s position.
Several of their pieces had been dismounted at this point by the
incessant bombardment of the previous days, while the Federal
sharpshooters were able to render dangerous any attempt to work
the artillery in position. Two regiments of sharpshooters were
detailed to creep up to and lie on the exterior slope of the enemy’s
breastworks, while another regiment, each soldier having a hand-
grenade besides his musket, followed. Another regiment followed
with bags filled with cotton, which were to be used to fill up the ditch
in front of the breastworks. The remaining regiments of General
Weitzel’s brigade succeeded, supported by the brigades of Colonel
Kimball and Colonel Morgan. These forces, all under General
Weitzel, constituted the right of attack.
On the left General Paine’s division constituted a separate column.
The whole command was under General Grover, who planned the
attack.
 It was expected that General Weitzel’s command would make a
lodgment within the enemy’s works, and thus prepare the way for
General Paine’s division.
The advance was made about daylight, through a covered way, to
within three hundred yards of the enemy’s position; then their
progress was retarded by deep gulleys, covered with bush and
creeping vines. Under an incessant fire from the enemy, a part of the
skirmishers reached the ditch, where they were met with an
enfilading fire, and hurled back, while their hand-grenades were
caught up by the enemy and thrown back again into the Union ranks.
The assaulting column moved on as rapidly as possible, and made
several gallant and desperate attempts on the enemy’s works, but
found them fully prepared at all points, and every part of their
fortifications lined with dense masses of infantry. At length the
assaulting columns were compelled to fall back under the deadly fire
of the enemy, and the fighting finally ceased at eleven o’clock in the
morning. General Banks’s loss was nearly seven hundred in killed
and wounded.
Meantime the first parallel encircling the outer line of the rebel
defences was pushed forward, and the skirmishers were posted in
rifle-pits so near that skirmishes were of constant occurrence at
night.

The withdrawal of General Banks’s force from the west side of the
Mississippi was followed by great activity on the part of the enemy,
for the purpose of recovering the places held by small bodies of
Federal troops, and to cause a diversion from Port Hudson.
Opelousas was reoccupied by a considerable Confederate force; and
the west bank of the Mississippi was lined with squads of the rebels,
who fired on every boat which passed. On the 17th of June, an attack
was made on the Federal pickets at La Fourche, which was repulsed.
On the 23d, Brashear City was captured by a Confederate force under
Generals Green and Morton. A camp of contrabands was attacked by
the enemy, and large numbers killed. Immense quantities of
ammunition, several pieces of artillery, three hundred thousand
dollars’ worth of sutler’s goods, sugar, flour, pork, beef, and medical
stores, of vast amount, were also captured. On the 28th, an attack
was made on Donaldsonville, and the storming party succeeded in
getting into the fort. But the gunboats opened a flanking fire above
and below the fort, and drove back the supporting party, so that the
enemy broke and fled. Of those who had entered the fort, one
hundred and twenty were captured and nearly one hundred killed.
Other movements on the part of the enemy were made at this time,
which indicated great activity, and enabled them to destroy much
Federal property. No embarrassment however was caused to the
position of General Banks. The enemy, in short, recovered the La
Fourche, Teche, Attakapas, and Opelousas country, and captured
Brashear, with fifteen hundred prisoners, a large number of slaves,
and nearly all the confiscated cotton.

After the two attempts to reduce Port Hudson by a land assault, on

the 27th of May and the 14th of June, the purpose to make another
was given up General Banks, until he had fully invested the place by
a series of irresistible approaches. He was thus engaged in pushing
forward his works when Vicksburg was surrendered. Information of
this surrender was sent to General Banks, and it was the occasion for
firing salutes and a general excitement in his camp, which attracted
the attention of the enemy, to whom the surrender was
communicated. General Gardner, upon receiving the information,
sent by flag of truce, about midnight of the 7th, the following note to
General Banks:

“Headquarters, Port Hudson, La., July 7th, 1863.

“To Major-General Banks, commanding United States forces near Port
Hudson:

“General: Having received information from your troops that Vicksburg has
been surrendered, I make this communication to request you to give me the official
assurance whether this is true or not, and if true, I ask for a cessation of hostilities,
with a view to the consideration of terms for surrendering this position.
“I am, General, very respectfully, Your obedient servant,
FRANK GARDNER, Major-General.”

To which General Banks thus replied

“Headquarters, Department of the Gulf, }

 before Port Hudson, July 8th, 1863. }
“To Major-General Frank Gardner, commanding C. S. forces, Port Hudson:

“General: In reply to your communication, dated the 7th instant, by flag of

truce, received a few moments since, I have the honor to inform you that I
received, yesterday morning, July 7th, at 10.45, by the gunboat General Price, an
official despatch from Major-General Ulysses S. Grant, United States Army,
whereof the following is a true extract:
“‘Headquarters, Department of the Tennessee, }
near Vicksburg, July 4th, 1863. }

“‘Major-General N. P. Banks, commanding Department of the Gulf:

“‘General: The garrison of Vicksburg surrendered this morning. The number of

prisoners, as given by the officer, is twenty-seven thousand, field artillery one
hundred and twenty-eight pieces, and a large number of siege guns, probably not
less than eighty.
“‘Your obedient servant, U. S. Grant, Major-General.’”

“I regret to say, that under present circumstances, I cannot, consistently with my

duty, consent to a cessation of hostilities for the purpose you indicate.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
N. P. BANKS.”

The following further correspondence then took place:

“Port Hudson, July 8th, 1863.

“General: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication

of this date, giving a copy of an official communication from Major-General U. S.
Grant, United States Army, announcing the surrender of Vicksburg.
“Having defended this position as long as I deem my duty requires, I am willing
to surrender to you, and will appoint a commission of three officers to meet a
similar commission appointed by yourself, at nine o’clock this morning, for the
purpose of agreeing upon and drawing up the terms of the surrender, and for that
purpose I ask for a cessation of hostilities.
“Will you please to designate a point outside of my breastworks, where the
meeting shall be held for this purpose?
“I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
FRANK GARDNER, Commanding C. S. Forces.”

“Headquarters, U. S. Forces, before }

 Port Hudson, July 8th, 1863. }
“To Major-General Frank Gardner, commanding Confederate States forces,
Port Hudson:
“General: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication
of this date, stating that you are willing to surrender the garrison under your
command to the forces under my command, and that you will appoint a
commission of three officers to meet a similar commission appointed by me, at
nine o’clock this morning, for the purpose of agreeing upon and drawing up the
terms of the surrender.
“In reply, I have the honor to state that I have designated Brigadier-General
Charles P. Stone, Colonel Henry W. Birge, and Lieutenant-Colonel Richard B.
Irwin, as the officers to meet the commission appointed by you.
“They will meet your officers at the hour designated, at a point where the flag of
truce was received this morning. I will direct that active hostilities shall entirely
cease on my part until further notice, for the purpose stated.
“Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
“N. P. BANKS, Major-General Commanding.”

CAMP SCENES.

ASSORTING THE MAIL.

 THE NEWS DEPOT.

The following are the articles of capitulation mutually agreed upon

and adopted:
Art. 1. Major-General Frank Gardner surrenders to the United
States forces under Major-General Banks, the place of Port Hudson
and its dependencies, with its garrison, armaments, munitions,
public funds, and materials of war, in the condition, as nearly as may
be, in which they were at the hour of cessation of hostilities, namely,
6 o’clock A. M., July 8, 1863.
Art. 2. The surrender stipulated in article one is qualified by no
condition, save that the officers and enlisted men comprising the
garrison shall receive the treatment due to prisoners of war,
according to the usages of civilized warfare.
Art. 3. All private property of officers and enlisted men shall be
respected, and left to their respective owners.
Art. 4. The position of Port Hudson shall be occupied to-morrow,
at 7 o’clock A. M., by the forces of the United States, and its garrison
received as prisoners of war by such general officers of the United
States service as may be designated by Major-General Banks, with
the ordinary formalities of rendition. The Confederate troops will be
drawn up in line, officers in their positions, the right of the line
resting on the edge of the prairie south of the railroad depot; the left
extending in the direction of the village of Port Hudson. The arms
and colors will be piled conveniently, and will be received by the
officers of the United States.
Art. 5. The sick and wounded of the garrison will be cared for by
the authorities of the United States, assisted if desired by either
party, by the medical officers of the garrison.
The formal surrender was made on the 9th of July. General
Andrews, Chief-of-Staff of General Banks, with Colonel Birge leading
his column, followed by two picked regiments from each division,
with Holcombe’s and Rowle’s batteries of light artillery, and the
gunners of the naval battery, entered the fortifications. The enemy
were drawn up in line, with their officers in front of them, on one
side of the road, with their backs to the river. The Federal troops
were drawn up in two lines on the opposite side of the road, with
their officers in front of them. General Gardner then advanced, and
offered to surrender his sword with Port Hudson. In appreciation of
his bravery, he was desired to retain it. He then said: “General, I will
now formally surrender my command to you, and for that purpose
will give the order to ground arms.” The order was given, and the
arms grounded. The surrender comprised, besides the position, more
than six thousand two hundred and thirty-three prisoners, fifty-one
pieces of artillery, two steamers, four thousand four hundred pounds
of canon powder, five thousand small arms, and one hundred and
fifty thousand rounds of ammunition. The loss of General Banks
from the twenty-third to the thirtieth of May was about one
thousand. The village of Port Hudson consisted of a few houses and a
small church, which had been nearly destroyed by the cannonade.
The wounded and sick of the garrison suffered most from want of
medical stores. The provisions of the garrison were nearly exhausted.

A short period of inactivity succeeded the heavy campaign of

General Banks’s army, which culminated in the capture of Port
Hudson, on the 9th of July, 1863. But the plans of the commanding
officers were maturing for new expeditions, in more remote regions,
where the flag of rebellion was still floating defiantly, and where the
machinations of European powers were striving covertly to give aid
to the Confederate cause, and to establish an unfriendly Government
on the Federal confines, if not on American soil.
Rear-Admiral David D. Porter arrived at New Orleans on the 1st of
August, 1863, and resumed command of the gunboats on the
Mississippi. About the same time Major-General Franklin, formerly a
corps commander in the Army of the Potomac, arrived at the same
place, and reported for duty.
A naval expedition to the mouth of the Sabine river, in Texas, was
undertaken by General Banks, who dispatched General Franklin with
four thousand men in four army transports, to capture the forts at
Sabine Pass, at the mouth of the river, which forms the boundary line
between Texas and Louisiana. The armed steamers employed were
the Clifton, Sachem, Arizona, and Granite City, and the naval forces
were commanded by Lieutenant Crocker.
Early on the morning of September 8th, the Clifton stood in the
bay and opened on the fort, to which no reply was made. At 9 A. M.
the Sachem, Arizona, and Granite City, followed by the transports,
stood over the bar, and, with much difficulty, owing to the low water,
reached an anchorage about two miles from the fort at 11 A. M. About
the middle of the afternoon the Sachem, followed by the Arizona,
advanced up the eastern channel to draw the fire of the forts, while
the Clifton advanced up the western channel. The Granite City
remained to cover the landing of a division of troops under General
Weitzel. No reply was made to the fire of the gunboats until they
were abreast of the forts, when eight guns opened fire upon them.
Three of these were rifled. Almost at the same moment the Clifton
and Sachem were struck in their boilers and both vessels enveloped
in steam. The Arizona, not having room to pass the Sachem, then
backed down the channel until she grounded by the stern, when the
ebb-tide caught her bows and swung her across the channel. White
flags were raised on the Clifton and Sachem, and within twenty
minutes they were taken in tow by the enemy. The naval force of the
expedition being thus disabled, the transports moved out of the bay.
The Arizona was got afloat during the night, and followed. The
expedition then returned to Brashear City. The officers and crews of
the Clifton and Sachem, and about ninety sharpshooters who were
on board were captured, and the loss in killed and wounded was
about thirty. After remaining at Brashear City some time, the
military force moved to Franklin and Vermillionville.
On the 27th of October an expedition under General Banks put to
sea from New Orleans. It consisted of about twenty vessels,
accompanied by the gunboats Owasco, Virginia, and Monongahela,
which sailed to the mouth of the Rio Grande river, the boundary
between Texas and Mexico. Brownsville was occupied by Federal
troops, which did much to check the designs of the French Emperor.
An American army was now placed on the frontier, prepared to check
any open demonstration of sympathy between the armies of Davis
and Napoleon.
Western Louisiana was again the scene of military operations in
the Teche district, where General Washburn’s command was
attacked on the 5th of November, and after a severe struggle, he
succeeded in beating off the enemy with a loss of one hundred killed
and two hundred prisoners. The Federal loss was forty killed.
 NAVAL OPERATIONS IN 1863.

The most important operations of the navy during the year were
those on the Mississippi river, and before Charleston, which have
been already described in connection with army movements.
The work of building vessels for naval purposes was carried on
vigorously during the year, and, inclusive of vessels purchased, and
those captured from the enemy, fifty-eight vessels, mounting four
hundred and fifty-two guns, with a tonnage of fifty thousand tons,
were added; while the loss for the same period was thirty-four
vessels of about sixteen thousand tons, including the iron-clads
Monitor and Weehawken, which foundered in stormy weather. The
number of seamen on the register was about thirty-four thousand.
At daylight on January 29, an iron propeller named Princess Royal
attempted to enter Charleston harbor, but was captured by the
gunboat Unadilla. This was one of the most valuable prizes taken
during the war. The cargo would have been of great service to the
enemy, who immediately set on foot a daring scheme to recover her.
Accordingly, before daylight on the 31st, two rebel rams, the
Palmetto State and the Chicora, under Commodore Ingraham, came
down the channel, and surprised the smaller vessels of the
blockading squadron, which lay close in shore. The Mercedita was
the first vessel attacked, which was rendered helpless by the
explosion of a 7-inch shell from the Palmetto State in her port boiler,
and surrendered. The Keystone State was then attacked by both
rams, and made a most gallant defence, but being disabled, she was
compelled to pull down her flag, but re-hoisted it when she found the
enemy did not discontinue his fire. Other vessels making their
appearance, the rams soon after discontinued the attack, and both
the disabled Federal vessels were taken in tow by their consorts.
 It was claimed by General Beauregard and Flag-officer Ingraham
that the blockade had been raised in accordance with the laws of war,
as there were no Federal vessels in sight from Charleston at daylight
on the 1st of February; and the foreign consular agents in Charleston
were induced to indorse this claim, but the assumption remained
unnoticed by foreign governments.
On January 30, the Federal gunboat Isaac Smith, Lieutenant
Conover, was captured on Stono river, S. C., by masked shore
batteries, after losing twenty-four men in killed and wounded.
On the 27th of February, the Montauk monitor destroyed the rebel
steamer Nashville, under the guns of Fort McAllister.
On December 17th, the steamer Chesapeake, plying between New
York and Portland, was seized on her passage to the latter place,
when about twenty miles northeast of Cape Cod, by sixteen of her
passengers, who represented themselves as belonging to the
Confederate States. The captain was put in irons, one of the
engineers killed and thrown overboard, and the first mate wounded.
The crew and passengers, with the exception of the first engineer,
retained to manage the steamer, were subsequently put ashore in a
boat, and the Chesapeake sailed to the eastward. Upon the reception
of the news in the United States, a fleet of cruisers started in pursuit,
and on the 17th the Chesapeake was captured by the Ella and Anna,
in Sambro harbor, Nova Scotia, and, with a portion of her crew, was
carried to Halifax and delivered to the authorities. The prisoners
were released by a mob, but the Chesapeake was subsequently
restored to her American owners by an order of the chief colonial
tribunal.
The number of vessels captured by the several squadrons, from the
commencement of the war to November 1, 1863, was one thousand
and forty-five, valued at thirteen millions of dollars. During the same
period the rebels had destroyed or captured one hundred and eighty-
four Federal vessels, valued at fifteen millions of dollars.
 THE FIELD OF OPERATIONS IN 1864.

At the beginning of the year 1864, the authority of the United

States Government—established by the dauntless courage and
determined valor of the armies of the Union—extended over a very
large portion of the territory which had been controlled by the
rebellion. The capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson had opened the
navigation of the Mississippi river. The State of Missouri had been
redeemed, and the rebel power had been broken in Arkansas. From
Kentucky and Tennessee the rebel flag had been driven out, by the
victorious banner of the Republic. In Florida, in the Carolinas, and in
Southern Virginia, the arms of the Union had effected a permanent
lodgment. The mouth of the Rio Grande had been closed, thus
cutting off an important channel of rebel communication with
foreign markets, and with disloyal traders at the North. In Louisiana
the power of the Government was growing stronger, day by day.
Victory, moreover, had strengthened the hands and hearts of the
patriots at the North, soldiers as well as civilians. The army and the
navy were in excellent condition, and the War Department felt
justified in making a reduction of upwards of two millions of dollars,
in its estimate of military and naval expenditure for the next year.
Thus, in every particular, the condition of the country seemed much
improved, while the prospects for the future were full of comfort and
promise. Important work yet remained to be done: sacrifices were
yet to be made. But the work was enjoined by a sacred sense of duty,
and the loyal people of the United Slates were ready to make any and
every sacrifice that might be required for its suitable and thorough
performance.
The positions of the various armies, at the beginning of 1864,
should here be noted. General Meade, commanding the Army of the
Potomac, was posted near Culpepper Court House, in Virginia,
whither he had arrived, after a variety of manœuvres, in the latter
part of 1863. General Lee confronted him with the finest army of the
rebellion. The Union forces occupied Winchester, Martinsburg, and
Harper’s Ferry, and held the line of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad,
thus blocking all possible advance of the rebels up the Shenandoah
valley. A rebel force, however, was in the valley, led on by General
Jubal Early, whose headquarters were at Staunton. General Bragg’s
rebel forces were massed in the vicinity of Dalton, Georgia, opposed
by the Union armies under General Grant, in front of Chattanooga,
Tennessee. General Burnside—whose resignation had not yet been
given in—was at Knoxville, and not far to the eastward of that point
was General Longstreet’s division of the rebel army. General Banks
held command in New Orleans, and had detachments of troops in
Texas. General Rosecrans was at the head of a small force in
Missouri. General Steele commanded the Union troops at Little
Rock, in Arkansas. Military fortifications were established, all along
the Mississippi river. The United States had about six hundred
thousand men in the field: the Confederates about four hundred
thousand. General Lee’s forces, in Virginia and North Carolina,
numbered at least one hundred and ten thousand. The other great
army of the Confederacy was commanded by General J. C. Johnston,
whose department included Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. The
rebel troops at Mobile were commanded by Generals Maury and
Clairborne.
The great operations of the year 1864 were, Sherman’s march from
Atlanta to Savannah—including, of course, the preliminary
manœuvres and battles, which prepared his way—and General
Grant’s advance on Richmond, by way of the Wilderness. Before
describing these, however, a considerable space must be devoted to
miscellaneous operations in various parts of the country.
 SHERMAN’S EXPEDITION AGAINST
MERIDIAN, MISS.
February 3, 1864.

After participating in the battles around Chattanooga, and raising

the siege of Knoxville to relieve General Burnside, General Sherman
withdrew to Vicksburg, to take command of an expedition which left
that city on the 3rd of February, 1864, and proceeded in the direction
of Meridian, in Alabama. The force under General Sherman
numbered about thirty thousand men, and consisted of the two corps
under General McPherson and General Hurlbut, with sixty pieces of
light artillery. After much skirmishing by the way, in which the
enemy was constantly overcome. General Sherman reached Meridian
on the 7th of February. The object of this expedition was the
destruction of several railroads which are specified in the following
order, issued after the Union force had been one week in Meridian.

Headquarters, Department of the Tennessee, }

Meridian, Miss., February, 15, 1864. }

1. The destruction of the railroads intersecting at Meridian is of great

importance, and should be done most effectually. Every tie and rail for many miles
in each direction should be absolutely destroyed or injured, and every bridge and
culvert should be completely destroyed. To insure this end, to General Hurlbut is
entrusted the destruction east and north, and to General McPherson the roads
west and south. The troops should be impressed with the importance of this work,
and also that time is material, and therefore it should be begun at once, and
prosecuted with all the energy possible. Working parties should be composed of
about one-half the command, and they should move by regiments, provided with
their arms and haversacks, ready to repel attacks of cavalry. The other half in
reserve will be able to watch the enemy retreating eastward.
 2. Colonel E. F. Winslow, commanding cavalry, will keep his cavalry in advance
of the party working eastward, and will act as though this army were slowly
pursuing the enemy.
3. Special instructions will be given as to the general supply train; and the troops
now in Meridian will, under proper brigade parties, collect meal, meat and
supplies. The destruction of buildings must be deferred till the last moment, when
a special detail will be made for that purpose.
By order of W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-General commanding.

These directions being faithfully carried out, General Sherman

with justice declared that he had made the most complete
destruction of railroads ever beheld.
Supplies now beginning to fall short, the Union forces fell back
toward Vicksburg, returning by the way of Canton, and reached their
original position on the 26th of February.
In this expedition the National loss in killed and wounded
amounted to one hundred and seventy men.
 GENERAL SMITH’S EXPEDITION FROM
MEMPHIS, TENN.
February 11, 1864.

General M. L. Smith, who had been ordered to report to General

Sherman at Meridian, had in the mean time, left Memphis on the
11th of February. On the 13th the National forces reached the
Tallahatchie, and on the same day crossed the river at New Albany,
without encountering any opposition from the enemy. Pushing
forward with all possible speed, General Smith encountered the
enemy, in force, near Houston. The Unionists, not being strong
enough to engage the rebels, then moved eastward, and surprised
and entered Okalona. Advancing along the railroad, and tearing up
the track as he went, General Smith next reached West Point, having
destroyed on the way two thousand bales of cotton, and one million
bushels of corn. Two miles north of West Point Station, the enemy
was encountered, and a short skirmish ensued, in which the rebels
were driven back. The enemy were next discovered to be in strong
force in front, holding all the crossings over a swamp to the right of
the town, and also on the line of the Octibbieha in front, and that of
the Tombigbee river on the left. An attack was necessary; and
General Smith, encumbered with pack trains and captured cattle,
determined to make his demonstration for battle in front, in order to
give his main body and trains an opportunity to fall back on Okalona.
This movement was successfully accomplished, notwithstanding that
the enemy, under the command of Generals Lee, Forrest and
Chalmers, pressed very hard upon the retreating Union line.
Subsequently, on the 22nd, General Smith was attacked at Okalona,
and defeated with severe loss. That night he retreated, with all
possible secrecy and speed. A correspondent thus describes his
retreat:
 “Picture to yourself, if you can, a living, moving mass of men,
negroes, mules, and horses, of four thousand or five thousand, all en
masse, literally jammed, huddled, and crowded into the smallest
possible space; night setting in; artillery and small arms booming
behind us; cavalry all around and ahead, moving on, on, on, over
fences, through fields and brush, over hills and across mud-holes,
streams, and bridges, and still on, on into the night, until the moon
rises on the scene and shows us some of the outlines of this living
panorama. I forgot to say that in this crowd were a lot of prisoners,
too, once or twice attempting to escape, followed by the swift report
of the revolver, once with bitter consequences to the escaping
prisoners.”
On the night of the 23d General Smith succeeded in crossing the
Tallahatchie at New Albany, and on the 25th, at about noon, his
forces reached Memphis, with all their trains and spoils of war. The
loss was less than two hundred killed and captured. Thus it
happened that the expedition failed to make a junction with General
Sherman, at Meridian.
 THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION.
March 10-May 16, 1864.

An extensive trade had been carried on for two years between the
Confederate States, and the Mexican border. The occupation of
Brownsville had checked in a measure this intercourse, and it was
determined by the Federal authorities to attempt the capture of
Shreveport, an important trading town in the extreme northwestern
border of Louisiana, near the boundaries of Arkansas and Texas.
This place is at the head of steamboat navigation on the Red river, in
the midst of the largest and richest cotton district in the trans-
Mississippi department. It was the rebel capital of Louisiana, the
headquarters of Gen. Kirby Smith, and the general depot for rebel
supplies in that section. The Government desired Shreveport, and
the undisturbed possession of the Mississippi, and General Banks
was charged with the duty of taking it. His army consisted of a part of
the Nineteenth army corps, which he formerly commanded in
person; a portion of the Thirteenth army corps, under General
Ransom; and a portion of the Sixteenth army corps, under the
command of General Smith. A large naval force under Admiral
Porter, constituted an important part of the expedition.
The Red river cannot be navigated with safety for any distance
above Alexandria by large vessels, except during the months of
March and April; and arrangements were accordingly made for the
grand naval and army expedition to start as early in the month of
March as practicable.
On the second of the month, Admiral Porter concentrated his fleet
off the mouth of Red river, awaiting army movements, while some of
his gunboats were engaged in destroying bridges on the Atchafalaya
and Black rivers, and rebel property collected at Sicily Island.
Admiral Porter’s fleet comprised the following vessels:
 The Essex, Commander Robert Townsend; Benton, Lieutenant-
Commander James A. Greer; La Fayette, Lieutenant-Commander J.
P. Foster; Choctaw, Lieutenant-Commander F. M. Ramsey;
Chilicothe, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant S. P. Couthouy; Ozark,
Acting Volunteer Lieutenant George W. Browne; Louisville,
Lieutenant-Commander E. K. Owen; Carondolet, Lieutenant-
Commander J. G. Mitchell; Eastport, Lieutenant-Commander S. L.
Phelps; Pittsburgh, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant W. R. Hoel; Mound
City, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant A. R. Langthorne; Osage,
Lieutenant-Commander T. O. Selfridge; Neosho, Acting Volunteer
Lieutenant Samuel Howard; Ouachita, Lieutenant-Commander
Byron Wilson; Fort Hindman, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant John
Pearce. And the lighter boats: Lexington, Lieutenant George M.
Bache; Cricket, Acting Master H. H. Gorringe; Gazelle, Acting Master
Charles Thatcher; Black Hawk, Lieutenant-Commander K. R. Breese.
General A. J. Smith embarked from Vicksburg with his command,
of about ten thousand troops, on twenty transports, on the 10th of
March. His corps consisted of two divisions from the Sixteenth and
two of the Seventeenth army corps. He arrived at the mouth of the
Red river on the 12th. On the same day the transports moved up to
the Atchafalaya, and the troops were landed at Semmesport, where
they disembarked and marched overland, a distance of thirty miles,
to Fort De Russy, on the Red river, skirmishing throughout the route
with the enemy’s cavalry. On the afternoon of the 14th they were in
sight of the fort.
It consisted of two distinct and formidable earthworks, connected
by a covered way; the upper work, facing the road, mounted four
guns, two field and two siege; the lower work, commanding the river,
was a casemated battery of three guns. Only two guns were in
position in it, one an eleven-inch columbiad, and an eight-inch
smooth bore. On each side were batteries of two guns each, making
in all eight siege and two field-pieces. As the line moved up to the
edge of the timber, the upper work opened with shell and shrapnel,
against which two batteries were brought to bear. The cannonading
continued for two hours. A charge was then ordered, and as the men
reached the ditch, the garrison surrendered. The Federal loss was
four killed and thirty wounded; that of the enemy, five killed and
four wounded. The prisoners taken were twenty-four officers and
two hundred men. Considerable ammunition and stores were found,
besides a thousand muskets.
The fleet met with many obstructions on its passage up the river,
which were removed without serious damage to the vessels; and after
constant skirmishing with the river batteries, arrived in front of the
fort just before the close of the action, and rendered effective service.
General Smith ordered the works to be destroyed. A portion of his
troops then embarked on the transports, and reached Alexandria,
one hundred and forty miles from the Mississippi river, on the
evening of the 16th. They were followed by the remainder of the
forces and the fleet. The enemy retired before the advance,
destroying two steamboats and considerable cotton. During the first
week, the gunboats rescued upwards of four thousand bales of
cotton, and large quantities were brought in by the negroes. The fleet
was detained by the low water on the falls above Alexandria, its
depth being only six feet, whereas nine feet were required to float the
largest gunboats.
On the 20th, the cavalry force under General Lee, attached to the
command of General Banks, reached Alexandria, after marching
from Franklin across the Teche country. Meantime detachments
from General Smith’s command had been sent forward, and
captured several small bodies of the enemy.
On the 21st, Natchitoches was taken, with two hundred prisoners
and four pieces of artillery. It is about eighty miles from Alexandria.
About four miles from Natchitoches, is a small settlement of dingy
houses, called Grand Ecore. General Banks arrived at this place on
the 4th of April, and it was then made the headquarters of both the
army and navy commanders, and the entire force of the expedition
was located in that vicinity.
The army numbered about twenty thousand men. The cavalry was
under General Lee, formerly of Grant’s army; the artillery was
commanded by Brigadier-General Richard Arnold. General Franklin
was second in command. He had one division of his corps with him,
under General Emory. That of General Green remained at
Alexandria, to garrison the post. General Ransom’s force consisted of
two divisions. General Smith’s command remained at Natchitoches.
With the rest of the army General Bank’s moved from Natchitoches