reconnoissance into a battle, and on the commencement of the action, he had declared to Gen. Polignac, who commanded one of his divisions, "Little Frenchman, I am going to fight Banks here, if he has a million of men!" A dispatch from Gen. Smith came to him in the midst of the battle, ordering him to withdraw near Shreveport. "Too late, sir," said Taylor, to the courier who brought it; "the battle is won. It is not the first I have fought with a halter around my neck." Happily, a victory was obtained. But when on the heels of his victories, Gen. Taylor was for giving chase to Banks, and risking the whole department for an improbable success against an enemy intrenched and resting on gunboats, it must be considered wise and fortunate that he was opposed by the prudence of his superiour, and stayed at the point of success already accomplished. But when this difference between the two commanders went up to Richmond, and Gen. Taylor, ordered to Natchitoches, awaited there the pleasure of the government, President Davis did not take this view, and was prompt to adopt the cause and caprice of his relative-to such an extent, indeed, that he gave him increase of rank, and one of the most important commands in the Confederacy. The consequence of the disagreement between Gens. Taylor and Smith was that the former was made a Lieutenant-General, transferred east of the Mississippi, and given the command of what was popularly known as the Department of the Southwest, comprising East Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. This command Gen. Taylor surrendered to the enemy, in a convention with Gen. Canby, on the 4th May, 1865.

Before the war Gen. Taylor had possessed a vast property; he was a munificent planter, surrounded by wealth and culture. He was one of the earliest and most conspicuous victims of the enemy's rapacity. It was in the second year of the war, shortly after the capture of New Orleans, that the enemy commenced. to a large extent, his career of atrocities against rights and properties which the arms of both belligerents had hitherto spared. They removed Washington's statue from the State House of Louisiana to New York; they took a large part of the State library; they liberated the convicts from the Penitentiary. It was in this period of vandalism that Gen. Taylor's plantation was plundered, one hundred and fifty of his slaves carried off,

and his private papers despoiled, even of tokens of affection from his illustrious father. The exploit was gleefully described by a Vermont soldier, and published in a Northern paper. The report is copied literally, for obvious interest and instruction.

"It is one of the most splendid plantations that I ever saw. There are on it 700 acres of sugar-cane, which must rot upon the ground if the Government does not harvest it. I wish you could have seen the soldiers plunder this plantation. After the stock was driven off, the boys began by ordering the slaves to bring out everything there was to eat and drink. They brought out hundreds of bottles of wines, eggs, preserved figs, and peaches, turkeys, chickens, and honey in any quantity. I brought away a large camp-kettle and frying-pans that belonged to old Gen. Taylor, and also many of his private papers. I have one letter of his own hand-writing, and many from Secretary Marcy, some from Gen. Scott, and some from the traitor Floyd. I brought to camp four bottles of claret wine. Lieut. brought away half a barrel of the best syrup from the sugar-house, and a large can of honey. The camp-kettle and pans I intend to send home. They are made of heavy tin, covered with copper. I think I will send home the private papers by mail, if I do not let any one have them. The camp is loaded down with plunder-all kinds of clothing, rings, watches, guns, pistols, swords, and some of Gen. Taylor's old hats and coats, belt-swords—and, in fact, every old relic he had is worn about camp."

How refreshing the innocence and exuberance of the Vermont spoiler; how evident that such outrages were not the unusual or hidden practices of Federal soldiers; how great the magnanimity that is called upon to forgive and forget such atrocities of the war! Gen. Taylor is now a comparatively poor man, struggling for a livelihood in commercial pursuits in New Orleans-the city his arms most sought to save; and when we find such a man, notwithstanding the grievous personal recollection of the war he bears, consenting to the enemy's terms of reconstruction, and heartily counselling their acceptance, we see an example of that magnanimity which has made the people of the South admirable in disaster, and proved their strength equal to suffer as to do.

MAJ.-GEN. DABNEY H. MAURY.

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CHAPTER LXXVI.

Ancestral stock of Dabney H. Maury.-Services in the Mexican War.-Accepts the cause of the Southern Confederacy.-Various services in the Western armies.— His gallant defence of Mobile.-The Army of Mobile the last organized body of troops in the Confederacy.

DABNEY HERNDON MAURY is descended from the families of Fontaine and of Maury, who fled from France to Virginia, on the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV.; from the Minor who came to Virginia, in the reign of Charles II., with a grant from that king; and from the Brooke, who came to Virginia, with grants from Queen Anne. The estate of Brooke Bank, on the Rappahannock, is still held by William Brooke, under the original grant. Dabney H. Maury was born in Fredericksburg, May 21, 1822. His father was an officer of high character and ability, who lost his life while serving under old Commodore David Porter in the West Indies, as flag-officer of his fleet; and his father's brother, Matthew Fontaine Maury, yet lives, known to fame as "Lieutenant Maury."

In 1846, he graduated at West Point, was assigned to the Mounted Rifles, proceeded to Mexico, and went into action for the first time at Vera Cruz. He was severely wounded at Cerro Gordo, was promoted for his gallantry there, and also received a pleasant and honourable testimony in the present of a sword from the citizens of Fredericksburg. He was subsequently variously employed as instructor at West Point and Carlisle Barracks, and gave to the military literature of the country a valuable treatise on a new system of tactics for mounted troops. In 1860 he was promoted to captain of the Adjutant-General's department, and ordered to Santa Fé, as Adjutant-General of New Mexico.

He resigned his commission on receiving the news of the secession of Virginia, and made his way with his family and servants through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, to Richmond, where he arrived on the 19th July, 1861. He was at once appointed Colonel of Cavalry by the Governor of Virginia, and subsequently Lieutenant-Colonel in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, and assigned to duty as He was Adjutant-General of Johnston's army at Manassas. soon afterwards, at his own request, transferred to the Army of Fredericksburg.

In February, 1862, he was ordered to the Trans-Mississippi Department, as Chief of Staff to Gen. Van Dorn; and, having been complimented in the battle of Elk Horn, he was promoted Brigadier-General. He went to Corinth with the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, and from that time held various commands in the West. He commanded a division in the battle of Corinth, and did a splendid service after that action in engaging the Federal corps under Ord, at the Hatchie Bridge; and in the subsequent operations around Vicksburg, especially in the defeat of Sherman's and Porter's expedition into the Deer River country, he obtained additional distinction.

But the most memorable and brilliant service rendered by Gen. Maury was the defence of Mobile, in the last periods of the war—an event which adorned the declining fortunes of the Confederacy, and gave to its history the last example of glory. He had been transferred to East Tennessee, when he was ordered to exchange Departments with Gen. Buckner, and to proceed to Mobile, and take command of the Department of the Gulf. While exercising this command, Gen. Maury, at different times, repulsed the attack of Farragut's fleet against Fort Powell, the column of Davidson, from Baton Rouge, against Mobile, and the raid of Ashboth, from Pensacola, towards the Montgomery and Great Northern Railroad. Being temporarily in command of the Department embracing Mississippi, Alabama, East Louisiana, and West Florida, he authorized Forrest to make the expedition into Memphis which caused the retreat of the invading column of A. J. Smith, which had already penetrated into Mississippi as far as Oxford.

After Mobile had been several times threatened with attack,

an army under Canby, and a large fleet, commenced to move against it, in March, 1865. Canby's immediate force was over 45,000 troops, besides a fleet of about twenty war vessels. Gen. Maury's forces were less than 8,000 effectives, with four or five inefficient gunboats. The enemy having got in position, attacked the lines of Spanish Fort and Blakely, while he threatened Mobile itself. The effective force of the positions attacked numbered about 4,000 of all arms; the besiegers numbered more than 45,000, and the works were light field-works. The supply of Confederate ammunition was scant, and had to be very sparingly used. After two weeks of defence, not surpassed in courage and skill by any in the war, the position of Spanish Fort was abandoned to the enemy, and most of the garrison saved. Next day, Blakely was carried by assault. Gen. Maury then decided, in pursuance of his general instructions, to attempt no defence of the city, but to save his garrison. He occupied two days, April 10th and 11th, in removing his stores and destroying his armament, etc., and during the night of the 11th, he removed the troops from their positions in the city, except the rear-guard of 300 Louisiana infantry. On the 12th he marched out of Mobile, on the road to Meridian. The Army of Mobile reached Meridian about 4,500 strong, and was organized into a division under Gen. Maury, and prepared to march across the country into Carolina, to join Gen. Johnston. But this design was overruled by events which had occurred elsewhere.

On the 12th May, 1865, Gen. Maury and the Army of Mobile were paroled prisoners of war, under the terms of the surrender made by Gens. Taylor and Canby. The Army of Mobile was the only organized body of troops on that day in the Confederacy, and bore on their serried bayonets the last hope of the South.