murdering and marauding cavalry of Kilpatrick. This latter he did very effectually; once surprising Kilpatrick's camp and causing the valorous commander to take hasty flight, with no other garment on but his shirt. But his reduced command could do little to restrain the outrages of Sherman's main army, and his sensibilities were lacerated by scenes of which he and his men were compelled to be almost helpless spectators. He was ordered to leave Columbia without a fight, and he was compelled to abandon his own home there to the torch of the enemy, whose cowardly ferocity spared not even the abode of hospitality, refinement, luxury, and art. Outrages multiplied. When Sherman's army, not glutted with the vengeance and spoil of Columbia, marched northward to Charlotte, it was preceded by a gang of men called "bummers," who robbed, plundered, and murdered with impunity. Worse villains never went unhung. Some of these Sherman said had been killed after capture; and he wrote to Gen. Hampton a very characteristic letter, stating that he would hang man for man. Gen. Hampton replied that he knew nothing of the killing of any of his "foragers," as he called them; but he gave him fair notice, that if he hung a single Confederate soldier, he would hang two Federals; furthermore, he told Gen. Sherman that he had directed his men to shoot down any soldier found burning houses, and that he should continue to do this as long as he (Sherman) disgraced the profession of arms by destroying private dwellings. "Your line of march," said Gen. Hampton, "can be traced by the lurid light of burning houses; and in more than one household there is an agony far more bitter than death-a crime too black to be mentioned." In outrages such as this the war found its fitting conclusion; and the chivalric and honourable protest of such men as Gen. Hampton was scarcely heard in the midst of the general ruin, was almost unnoticed in the boast and clamour of the enemy's success, and is on record now only for the purposes of history.

Since the war, Gen. Hampton has been much more conspicu ous than the majority of his companions-in-arms, and his name has had a singular importance attached to it. There appears to have been a remarkable consent on the part of the Radical press and politicians of the North to accept him as a representative

of a class, and to express in his name that sentiment in the South which, surviving the war, insists yet upon the honour of its prostrate cause, and pleads for a tender and reverential memory of its past. It is the sentiment, in fact, which while submitting to the proper arbitration of the sword, disdains any confession of dishonour or exhibition of shame in the matter; and reasserting its rights and interests in a restored Constitution, refuses to take the position of the vanquished, and to be punished at the discretion of the conqueror. It has been common in Northern journals to describe the class holding this sentiment as "the Wade Hamptons of the South," and to put the name in antithesis to the modern self-styled faction of "Loyalists." It is an extraordinary compliment to the noble South Carolinian. It is in this view that all his political opinions since the war have been quoted with importance, and have had a large circulation through the press. These opinions, indeed, constitute not the least interesting part of his life, and indicate, we trust, future additions to his influence and fame.

On the close of the war there were many Southerners who, in the first bitterness of their disappointment and defeat, were disposed to abandon their land, and to organize schemes of emigration to foreign countries. In one of these schemes which proposed a refuge and colony in Brazil, Gen. Hampton was designated as leader and conductor of the enterprise. But he not only discouraged it, but rebuked it very nobly, and so effectually, that it was almost entirely abandoned by those who were first active in its advocacy. He published a letter in reply to inquiries addressed to him by persons who proposed to emigrate. He dissuaded his correspondents from any general emigration; advised them to remain at home and devote their energies to the restoration of law and order, the reëstablishment of agriculture and commerce, the promotion of education, and the rebuilding of the dwellings and cities which have been laid in ashes. To accomplish these objects he urged that "all who can do so should take the oath of allegiance to the United States Government, so that they may participate in the restoration of civil government to our State. A distinguished citizen of our State," he wrote, "an honest man, and a true patriot, has been appointed Governor. He will soon call a convention of the people which

will be charged with the most vital interests of our State." He urged that the delegates elected to this convention should be men "who had laid their all upon the altar of their country." He himself should pursue the course which he recommended to others, "devoting himself earnestly, if permitted to do so, to the discharge of these obligations, public and private; " but in the mean time he should obtain all the information desirable in the establishment of a colony, in case they were obliged to leave the country.

These statements were written at the time when the Radical party of the North had not yet fully disclosed its programme of striking down the State institutions, Africanizing the South, and when there was some hope of the resoration of civil government, and the erection of some measures of liberty and order on the ruins of the war. At a subsequent period, when the policy of this party was more fully declared, Gen. Hampton addressed his countrymen on the darkened political prospect of the South, with reference to her new articles of policy and duty.

In a speech delivered at Wallahalla, South Carolina, in the autumn of 1866, he treated of the recent war, the terms upon which the South had capitulated, and the future policy of the South. "It is full time," he said, "that some voice from the South should be raised to declare that, though conquered, she is not humiliated; that though she submits, she is not degraded; that she has not lost her self-respect, that she has not laid down her arms on dishonourable terms; that she has observed these terms with the most perfect faith, and that she has a right to demand the like observance of them on the part of the North." He declared that the South had become loyal in the true acceptation of the word; that she had fulfilled her part of the peace compact, and in every way observed her obligations since the close of the war.

Concerning the policy of the South, he said: "In the anomalous condition in which we are placed, it is a matter of great difficulty to mark out the proper course for us to pursue; but there are certain cardinal principles of which we should never lose sight. The first of them is, that as we accepted the terms of the North in good faith, we are bound by every dictate of honour to abide by them fully and honestly. They are none the less

binding on us because the dominant and unscrupulous party of the North refuse to accede to us our just rights. Let us, at least, prove ourselves worthy of the rights we claim; let us set an example of good faith, and we can then appeal with double effect to the justice and magnanimity of the North."

Of the abolition of slavery, he said: "Of all the inconsistencies of which the North has been guilty-and their name is legion-none is greater than that by which she forced the Southern States, while rigidly excluding them from the Union, to ratify the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery, which they could do legally only as States of the Union. But the deed has been done; and I, for one, do honestly declare, that I never wish to see it revoked. Nor do I believe that the people of the South would now remand the negro to slavery if they had the power to do so unquestioned."

In conclusion, he urged that the people of the South should fulfil to the letter all obligations they had entered into, keeping their faith so clear that no shadow of dishonour could fall upon them; that they should sustain President Johnson cordially in his policy, giving their support to that party which rallied around him; that they should render full obedience to the laws of the land, reserving to themselves, at the same time, the inalienable right of freedom of speech and of opinion; and that as to the great question which so materially affected their intereststhe abolition of slavery-they should declare it settled for ever.

LIEUT.-GEN. NATHANIEL B. FORREST.

CHAPTER LXX.

Peculiarities of the Western theatre of the war.-Forrest, "the Great Cavalryman of the West.”—Nathaniel B. Forrest, his parentage and early life.—Enters the army as a private. His escape from Fort Donelson.-His expedition into West Tennes see.-Pursuit aud capture of Streight's command in Georgia.-The field of Chickamauga.—Gen. Forrest leaves the Army of Tennessee. - His career in Mississippi — Victory of Okolona.-The dramatic story of Fort Pillow.-Victory of Tishamingo Creek.-Gen. Forrest rejoins the Army of Tennessee.-His last affair with the enemy at Selma.-The wonder and romance of his career.-A remarkable theory of cavalry service.-His extraordinary prowess in the war, and deeds of blood.

DURING the whole course of the war, a contrast was observed between the fortunes of the Confederate army operating in Virginia and those of what was popularly known as the Army of the West, traversing the varied and intricate theatre extending from the Alleghany Mountains to the Mississippi River. While victory was the usual incident of the former, the career of the latter may be described as unequal: a chequer of light and shade; brilliant victories converted into defeats, followed by disasters, chased by the shadows of misfortune. Indeed, the history of the Army of the West appears to have been impressed by a premonition and augury in the extraordinary fate of its first great commander, Albert Sidney Johnston, who fell in the effulgence of success on its first great field, quickly overcast by the shadow of disaster, and who poured out his life-blood on the boundary of fortune, between the victory of the day and the defeat of the morrow.

But to this rule of contrast between the Army of Virginia and