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It is partly amusing to notice that flimsy and flippant hypocrisy which, in Yankee newspapers, declared that Dahlgren, who had come on such an errand, when killed in a fight with our troops was "assassinated," or which, through the offices of an alliterative strong-minded woman, the peculiar creature of Yankeedom-one "Grace Greenwood "-apotheosized, through public lectures to Yankee soldiers, one of the worst of their kind, and proclaimed him as "the young hero of the North." The dramatic account of the stripping of the body of the marauder, and the cutting off the joint of a finger to get from it a diamond ring, is, however revolting to a tender humanity, nothing but an ordinary circumstance in a war where both sides have admitted what is indeed a deplorable practice-that of "peeling" on the battle-field.

But there were some acts of the Confederate authorities in relation to the Dahlgren affair, which deserved a severe censure, and which were wholly indefensible. Many persons in the Confederacy very justly thought that Dahlgren's raiders were not entitled to the privileges of prisoners of war, but should be turned over to the State authorities as thieves, incendiaries, and felons in all respects. The Confederate authorities, from motives which could only have been fear of the enemy's displeasure, declined to accede to this demand. But popular clamor was to be appeased; and to do so the old game of "retaliation" was to be played, and its plain demands put off by melodramatic expedients honorable to tell, but in reality amounting to nothing.

gren's body they were placed in the hands of General FitzHugh Lee; and the soiled folds of the paper were then plainly visible. The words referring to the murder of the President and his cabinet were not interlined, but were in the regular context of the manuscript. The proof of the authenticity of the papers is clinched by the circumstance that there was also found on Dahlgren's body a private note-book, which contained a rough draft of the address to his soldiers, and repetitions of some of the memoranda copied above. The writer has carefully examined this note-book—a common memorandum pocket-book, such as might be bought in New York for fifty cents-in which are various notes, some in ink and some in pencil; the sketch of the address is in pencil, very imperfect, written as one who labored in composition, crossed and recrossed. It does not differ materially in context or language from the more precise composition, except that the injunction to murder the Confederate leaders is in the rough draft made with this additional emphasis, "killed on the spot.”

Dahlgren's body was buried out of sight, with the puerile mystery of a concealed grave. The Libby Prison was undermined, several tons of powder put under it, and the threat made that if any demonstration on Richmond, such as Dahlgren's, was ever again to occur, the awful crime, the appaling barbarity would be committed of blowing into eternity the hundreds of helpless men confined in a Confederate prison. No one can believe that such an atrocity was ever intended, under any circumstances, to be executed by the Confederacy, or that it was any thing more than the melodrama by which our weak authorities had been accustomed to avoid the real and substantial issues of "retaliation." This was not the first instance in which the Confederacy had needlessly blackened its reputation by exaggerated pretences of retaliation, which it was thought necessary to make very ferocious in their conception, in proportion as they were to be failures in execution.

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CHAPTER XI.

The Current of Confederate Victories.-THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION.-Banks' Ambitious Designs.-Condition of the Confederates West of the Mississippi.-Banks' Extensive Preparations.-A Gala Day at Vicksburg.-Yankee Capture of Fort De Russy.--Occupation of Alexandria.-Porter's Warfare and Pillage.-Banks' Continued Advance.-Shreveport, the Grand Objective Point.-Kirby Smith's Designs.— General Green's Cavalry Fight.-BATTLE OF MANSFIELD.-Success of the Confederates.-BATTLE OF PLEASANT HILL.-The Heroic and Devoted Charge of the Confederates.-The Scene on the Hill.-Banks Fatally Defeated.-Price's Capture of Yankee Trains.-Grand Results of Kirby Smith's Campaign.-Banks in Disgrace.-Yankee Tenure of Louisiana.-FORREST'S EXPEDITION INTO KENTUCKY.-His Gallant Assault on Fort Pillow.-The Yankee Story of "Massacre."-Capture of Union City.-Confederate Occupation of Paducah.-Chastisement of the Yankees on their own Theatre of Outrages-CAPTURE OF PLYMOUTH, N. C.--General Hoke's Expedition.-Capture of "Fort Wessel."-Exploit of the "Albemarle."--The Assaults upon the Town.Fruits of its Capture.-The Yankees in North Carolina.

THE current of victory for the Confederacy was still to enlarge. The spring campaign of General Kirby Smith in the Trans-Mississippi was to terminate for us in one of the most decisive and fruitful successes of the war. On account of the remoteness of the theatre of action and its very imperfect communications with Richmond, we have now at hand but scant materials for composing the history of these events, which terminated in the overwhelming defeat of Banks, and the complete demolition of his extensive schemes in Western Louisiana and Texas.

THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION.

To understand the importance of Banks' great expedition up the Red River, it is necessary to review the military situa tion in the beginning of March. Sherman had returned to Vicksburg from his grand but disappointed expedition into Mississippi, and instead of directing his forces towards Mobile, the point of the greatest concern to the Confederates, he

detached a portion of them to General Banks' assistance, who, it appears, had predetermined on scattering or demolishing the Confederate force in West Louisiana, operating against Texas, and opening to Yankee spoliation and theft one of the richest cotton regions of the South. A very general impression existed in the North that the Confederate cause west of the Mississippi was particularly hopeless. General Steele had captured Little Rock, and was thought to have control of almost the entire country north of the Red river. General Banks had captured Brownsville, and occupied several points on the Texas coast, with Yankee forces. The discouragement of the Confederate leaders was said to be so complete that the story found believers among the Yankees that Kirby Smith had determined to pay off his army, furlough his men for an indefinite period, and then retire with his principal officers into Mexico.

The preparations of Banks, however, showed that he either contemplated a much greater resistance than what vulgar opinion in the North anticipated, or that he was determined to insure success by that exaggeration of means which timidity always suggests. The expedition had been the occasion of a complete change in his plan of military operations in the Department of the Gulf. Altogether, it was the most important military enterprise ever attempted west of the Mississippi, and the largest army ever assembled in that section (amounting, besides the fleet, to at least forty thousand men), was entrusted with its execution.

About the 1st of March the columns under General Franklin proceeded from New Orleans to Brashear City, and thence took up the line of march along the Bayou Teche. The forces under General A. J. Smith, from the Department of Tennessee, comprising the brigades under Generals F. S. Smith, Thomas, and Ellet, embarked at Vicksburg on the 10th of March, and proceeded down to the mouth of Red river, where they found a fleet of twenty gunboats ready for the ascent. The twenty transports, preceded by the twenty gunboats, started from the Mississippi on the 10th. As for the naval force of the expedition, a Northern paper stated that a more formidable fleet was never under a single command than that now on the western rivers under Admiral Porter.

The day of the embarkation at Vicksburg was a gala one for the Yankees. "The scene on the Mississippi river, opposite Vicksburg," says a Yankee correspondent," was sublime. From the deck of this steamer, the flagship of the expedition, went up the long, shrill whistle, the signal for our departure, which was instantly answered by the immense fleet, each steamer's whistle screaming a reply, 'All ready,' in notes ranging from C sharp to B flat. In five minutes the gigantic flotilla was in motion, the variegated lights swinging to and fro from the mastheads, while the crowded decks glistened with loyal bayonets, and the cabin windows reflected a brilliant light upon the rushing waters. Add to this picture the lively music of several brass bands, the cheering of the soldiers, eager for the approaching conflict, and their simple shelter-tents spread in miniature encampments on the upper decks of the steamers, while from the monster black chimneys the sparks fell in golden showers over the whole scene, and perhaps a slight idea will be conveyed of the romantic beauty of this rare war spectacle."

The imposing expedition proceeded up the Red river without serious opposition; and its first achievement was the capture, on the 14th of March, of Fort De Russy. The fort was easily taken by General Smith's advance, as it was garrisoned by only two or three companies of Confederates. Had it been fully manned it would have been a difficult point to capture. The fort was intended for a large force. It consisted of a very strong water-battery, mounting four guns, and a bomb-proof battery of three guns, only two of which were really mounted. Both these batteries fully commanded the approaches, and were connected with a strong fort, about a quarter of a mile to the rear, by a causeway, protected by high breast works, thus enabling the men to pass from the battery to the fort in action with comparative safety. The bomb-proof was covered with two feet of solid timber and two layers of railroad iron of the T style, fitted into each other.

Porter's gunboats were not engaged; and the garrison of the fort missed the coveted opportunity of testing the power of their superb water-battery. The Yankees took here two hundred and eighty-three prisoners and several heavy guns. Among the prisoners taken was Lieutenant-colonel Byrd, for

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