Cape Fear River. In December, Admiral Porter was sent with a powerful Union squadron to besiege and take the Fort. General Butler, with 6,500 men, accompanied the expedition. On the 24th of the month, the troops were sent ashore with orders to storm the works. When General Weitzel, who led, came near enough to reconnoiter, he decided that an assault could only end in disaster. General Butler held the same opinion, and the enterprise was abandoned. Admiral Porter remained before Fort Fisher with his fleet, and General Butler returned to Fortress Monroe. Early in January, the siege was renewed, and on the 15th of the month Fort Fisher was taken by storm. In the previous October, Lieutenant Cushing,,with a number of volunteers, embarked in a small steamer and entered the Roanoke. A tremendous iron ram, called the Albemarle, was discovered lying at the harbor of Plymouth. Cautiously approaching, the lieutenant sark a torpedo under the Confederate ship, exploded it, and left the ram a ruin. The adventure cost the lives or capture of all of Cushing's party, except himself and one other, who made good their escape. During the progress of the war, the commerce of the United States was greatly injured by the Confederate cruisers. The first ship sent out was the Savannah, which was captured on the same day that she escaped from Charleston. In June, of 1861, the Sumter, commanded by Captain Semmes, ran the blockade at New Orleans, and did fearful work with the Union merchantmen. But in February of 1862, Semmes was chased into the harbor of Gibraltar, where he was obliged to sell his vessel. The Nashville ran out from Charleston, and returned with a cargo worth $3,000,000. In March of 1863, she was sunk by a Union iron-clad in the Savannah River. The ports of the Southern States were now closely blockaded. In this emergency, the Confederates turned to the shipyards of Great Britain, and began to build cruisers. In the harbor of Liverpool the Florida was fitted out; and going to sea in the summer of 1862, she succeeded in running into Mobile Bay. She afterwards destroyed fifteen merchantmen, and was then captured and sunk in Hampton Roads. The Georgia, the Olustee, the Shenandoah, and the Chickamauga, all built at the ship-yards of Glasgow, Scotland, escaped to sea and made great havoc with the merchant ships of the United States. Most destructive of all was the Alabama, built at Liverpool. Her commander was Captain Raphael Semmes. A majority of the crew were British subjects; and her armament was entirely British. In her whole career which involved the destruction of sixty-six vessels and a loss of ten million dollars to the United States, she never entered a Confederate port. In the summer of 1864, Semmes was overtaken in the harbor of Cherbourg, France, by Captain Winslow, Commander of the steamer Kearsarge. On the 19th of June, Semmes went out to give his antagonist battle. After a desperate fight of an hour's duration, the Alabama was sunk. Semmes was picked up by the British vessel Deerhound, and carried in safety to Southampton. On the night of the 3d of May, 1864, the National camp at Culpepper was broken up and the march on Richmond began. On the first day of the advance, Grant crossed the Rapidan and entered the Wilderness, a country of oak woods and thickets. The Army of the Potomac, which had now commenced its march toward Richmond, was more powerful in numbers than at any previous period of the war. It was thoroughly equipped and provided with every appliance of modern warfare. On the other hand, the Confederate army of Northern Virginia had gained little in numbers during the winter just passed, and had never been so scantily supplied with food and clothing. The equipment as to arms was well enough for men who knew how to use them, but commissary and quartermaster's supplies were lamentably deficient. A new pair of shoes or an overcoat was a luxury, and full rations would have astonished the stomachs of Lee's ragged veterans. But they took their privations cheerfully, and complaints were seldom heard. An instance is recalled of one hardy fellow, whose trousers were literally worn so they would no longer adhere to his legs even by dint of the most persistent patching. Unable to obtain another pair, he wore instead a thin pair of cotton drawers. By taking good care of these he managed to get through the winter. Before the campaign opened in the spring, the quartermaster received a lot of clothing and he was the first man in his regiment to be supplied. Expressions of surprise arose in many minds, that such ragged, barefooted, half-starved men would fight at all. But the very fact that they remained with their colors through such privations and hardships was sufficient to prove that they would be dangerous foes to encounter upon the field of battle. The morale of the army at this time was excellent, and it moved forward confidently to the grim death grapple in the Wilderness of Spotsylvania with its old enemy, the Army of the Potomac. General Lee's headquarters were at Orange Court House; of his three corps, Longstreet's was at Gordonsville, Ewell's was on the Rapidan, above Mine Run, and Hill's on his left, higher up the stream. When the Union Army was known to be in motion, General Lee prepared to move upon its flank with his whole force, as soon as it should clear the river and begin its march Southward. The route selected by General Grant led entirely around the right of Lee's position on the river above. His passage of the Rapidan was unopposed, and he struck boldly out on the direct road to Richmond. Two roads lead from Orange Court House down the Rapidan towards Fredericksburg. They follow the general direction of the river, and are almost parallel to each other-the "Old Turnpike" nearest the river, and the "Plank Road" a short distance south of it. The route of the Federal Army lay directly across these two roads, along the western borders of the famous Wilderness. About noon on the 4th of May, Ewell's corps was put in motion on the Orange Turnpike, while A. P. Hill, with two divisions, moved parallel with him on the Orange Plank Road. The two divisions of Longstreet's corps, encamped near Gor donsville, were ordered to move rapidly across the country and follow Hill on the Plank Road. Ewell's corps was the first to find itself in the presence of the enemy. As it advanced along the Turnpike, on the morning of the 5th, the Union column was seen crossing it from the direction of Germania Ford. Ewell promptly formed in line of battle across the Turnpike, and communicated his position to General Lee, who was on the Plank Road with Hill's column. He was instructed to regulate his movements by the head of Hill's column, whose progress he could tell by the firing in its front, and not to bring on a general engagement until Longstreet's command should come up. The position of Ewell's troops, so near the flank of the Union line of march, was anything but favorable to a preservation of the peace, and a collision soon occurred which opened the campaign in earnest. CHAPTER XVIII. BATTLES IN THE WILDERNESS. "Hark! the death denouncing trumpet sounds And bathes itself in blood: havoc let loose ENERAL WARREN, whose corps was passing when Ewell came up, halted and turning to the right made a vigorous attack upon Edward Johnson's division, posted across the Turnpike. Jones' brigade, which held the road, was driven back in confusion. Stewart's brigade was pushed forward to take its place. Rodes' division was thrown on Johnson's right, South of the road, and the line thus re-established, moved forward, reversed the tide of battle, and rolled back the Union attack. The fighting was severe and bloody while it lasted. The lines were in such proximity at one point in the woods that, when the Union Army gave way, the One Hundred and Forty-sixth New York regiment threw down its arms and surrendered in a body. Ewell's entire corps was now up, Johnson's division holding the Turnpike, Rodes' division on the right of it, and Early's in reserve. So far Ewell had only been engaged with Warren's corps, but Sedgwick's soon came up from the river and joined Warren on his right. Early's division was sent to meet it. The battle extended in that direction, with steady anl determined attacks upon Early's front, until nightfall. The Confederates still clung to their hold on the Union flank against every effort to dislodge them. When Warren's corps encountered the head of Ewell's column on the 5th of May, General Meade is reported to have said: "They have left a division to fool us here, while |