13th, sent in his Special Message. If the Government's weakness and danger had been a matter of inference up to that day, after that Message they stood confessed. It said: "When informed on Thursday last that it was the intention of Congress to adjourn sine die on the ensu ing Saturday, I deemed it my duty to request a postponement of the adjournment, in order that I might submit for your consideration certain matters of public interest which are now laid before you. When that request was made the most important measures that had occupied your attention during the session had not been so far advanced as to be submitted for executive action, and the state of the country had been so materially affected by the events of the last four months as to evince the necessity of further and more energetic legislation than was contemplated in November last.

"Our country is now enviroued with perils which it is our duty calmly to contemplate. Thus alone can the measure necessary to avert threatened calamities be wisely devised and efficiently enforced.

Recent military operations of the enemy have been successful in the capture of some of our seaboards, and in devastating large districts of our country. These events have had the natural effect of encouraging our foes and dispiriting many of our people. The Capital of our Confederate States is now threatened, and it is in greater danger than it has heretofore been during the war. The fact is stated without reserve or concealment, as due to the people, whose servants we are, and in whose courage and constancy entire trust is reposed; as due to you, in whose wisdom and resolute spirit the people have confided for the adoption of the measures required to guard them from threatened perils." The measures proposed were such as sprang from desperation. All ideas of State Rights or State Sovereignty had long since been abandoned-or as the old State Rights organ the Richmond Enquirer said, had been abjured from experience of their danger in practice and the Administration sought

*This old State Rights advocate said, after its four years of practical experience:

"Has not State Sovereignty been the weakness of the cause? If, during the life and death struggle, with the com press of a common danger to bind and hold together these States, this principle of State Sovereignty was continually obtruding itself, delaying and preventing the legislation ne cessary to the common defense; impairing that authority entrusted for the general welfare, and impeding the execution of laws necessary and proper to the success of the cause, is it to be supposed that when peace returns, this principle of State Sovereignty will permit the Confederacy to exist one *The conduct of certain States in their year? * opposition to the laws passed for the organization of the army

Davis' "Last Call"

relief in acts which ignored individuals and States as completely as if the Czar of Russia was the model chosen for emulation.

Whatever be the value attached by Congress to these suggestions, it is hoped that there will be no hesitation in so changing the law as to render it possible to supply the army in case of necessity by the impressment of provisions for that purpose."

"The measures passed by Congress during the session for recruiting the army and supplying the additional force needed for the public defense, have been, in my judgment, insufficient, and I am impelled by a profound conviction of duty, and stimulated by a sense of the perils which surround our homes, to urge upon you additional legislation on this subject."

"The bill for employing negro soldiers has not yet reached me, though the printed journals of your proceedings inform me of its passage. Much benefit is anticipated from this measure, though far less than would have resulted from its adoption at an earlier date, so as to afford time for their organiza tion and instruction during the winter months."

"It is my duty to say that the time has arrived when the suspension of the writ is not simply advis able and expedient, but almost indispensable to the successful conduct of the war. Ou Congress must rest the responsibility of declining to exercise a power conferred by the constitution as a means of public safety to be used in periods of national peril resulting from foreign invasion."

With this peroration Davis closed what proved to be his last message:

Having thus fully placed before you the infor mation requisite to enable you to judge of the state of the country, the dangers to which we are expos ed, and the measures of legislation needed for averting them, it remains for me but to invoke your attention to those means by which, above all others, we may hope to escape the calamities that would result from our failure. Prominent above all others is the necessity for earnest and cordial co-operation

between all departments of government, State and Confederate, and all eminent citizens throughout the Confederacy.

"To you especially, as Senators and Representatives, do the people look for encouragement and counsel. To your action-not only in legislative halls, but in your homes-will their eyes be turned

and preservation of discipline, has caused many men to reconsider their long-chorished doctrine of State Sovereignty, and come to the conclusion that, while in theory it is beau tiful and true, in fact and practice it is utterly defective."

Those still pining after the "Lost Cause" should heed the lesson which their own internal dissensions taught.

the main rebel army. What if Lee should slip out of Petersburg and Richmond, and, using the Carolina railways, should confront the adventurous columns at Goldsboro' and Raleigh or Columbia, with thirty thousand men? Sherman, away from his base of supplies, would be in peril; but that contingency Grant evidently considered when he ordered Schofield with his 23d Corps to North Carolina, to act as a flank menace on any march against Sherman, as well as to establish for him ready bases of supplies.

Plan of the Second March.

December 6th, Grant thought of bringing Sherman up to Meade's help, by transports from Savannah, and so ordered. This decision, however, was modified after Hood's defeat by Thomas, and by the difficulty of obtaining sufficient transportation to move the army and its materiel with celerity. The disposal of Hood rend red an advance through the "up country" practicable, ad Grant wrote to Sherman, Dec. 18th, for his views regarding such a step. Letters crossed on the way. Replying to that of Dec. 6th, Sherman confessed to the Lieutenant-General that he "had expected, upon reducing Savannah, instantly to march to Columbia, S. C., then to Raleigh, and thence to report to me” (Grant). "The confidence he manifested in this letter," said Grant, "of being able to march up and join me pleased me, and without waiting for a reply to my letter of the 18th, I directed him, on the 28th of Detember, to make preparations to start as he proposed, without delay, to break up the railroads in North and South Carolina and join the armies operating against Richmond as soon as he could."

South Carolina, through all the war, up to 1965, had escaped unscathed in her territory save in the loss of her sea islands. The State which, of all others, was most responsible for the rebellion had suffered least. The desolated homes of Virginia, the guerrilla-haunted counties of Tennessee and Kentucky, the gunboat surveillance of Louisiana and Mississippi-all presented but a distant picture of war to her people; and, not having tasted the fruits of blood, save in their losses in a distant army, the people were as haughty, as fierce, as defiant as in the beginning. Said

the Charleston Mercury when referring to Georgia's powerlessness before Sherman's legion: "South Carolina don't intend to be conquered. She intends to fight. She don't intend to be hampered and turned over to the enemy. It is the imbecile who is sick at heart; it is the coward whose stomach is weak. We want no child's play." And yet, in a few days' time, the capital of their State was consumed; Charleston had fallen like a helpless, frightened invalid, and the Palmetto State was "under the heel of the despot" in a manner to feel every nail in that mailed foot.

Initial Movement.

About the 16th of January, 1865, Blair's 17th Corps and two divisions of the 15th Corps were conveyed in transports from Savannah to Beaufort, from whence Blair marched to Pocotaligo, where he had a slight encounter with the enemy, but soon took the fort with the loss of a few men. Corse's Fourth division, 15th Corps, took up its line of march with the left wing, which was to cross the Savannah above at Sister's ferry. It was also the intention to send the Third division by land across the Savannah river and an estuary of the sea at "Union Causeway," but, the flooding of the country by the rains forced them to cross in transports. The same cause retarded the general advance, which was to have taken place about the 26th of the month-the fall of rain, which was the heaviest remembered in Savannab, flooding the surrounding country, converting it into one sea.

Said Sherman, speaking of this flood: "General Slocum had a good pontoon bridge constructed opposite the city, and the Union Canseway,' leading through the low rice fields opposite Savannah, was repaired and corduroyed,' but before the time appointed to start, the heavy rains of January had swelled the river, broken the pontoon bridge, overflowed the whole 'bottom,' so that the causeway was four feet under water, and General Slocum was compelled to look higher up for a passage over the Savannah river. He moved up to Sister's ferry, but even there the river with its overflowed bottoms was near three miles wide, and he did not succeed in getting his whole wing across until during the first week of February."

Grover's division of the 19th Corps having been sent by Grant to garrison Savannah,

wing marched through Barnwell, which was left in ashes, and encamped three miles from White Pond

station.

12th-Right wing made a rapid march from Orangeburg toward the Congaree. The left wing tore up ten miles of the Charleston and Augusta railroad.

13th-Left wing crossed the South Edisto river. 14th-Left wing crossed the North Edisto river. 15th-Left wing effected a passage of the Congaree, and began shelling Columbia. General Carlin, in the advance of left wing, skirmished with the rebels near Lexington, capturing and burning the town. 16th-The right wing confronting Columbia. Left wing marched to Hart's ferry, on the Saluda river, and crossed. Beauregard retires upon Charlotte. 17th Right wing occupied Columbia. night Columbia was burned. Charleston abandoned this night. Left wing reached the Broad river. 18th-Right wing in camp at Columbia, and left wing in camp on Broad river. Charleston occupied by Foster's troops.

Same

23d-Right wing on Lynch creek. Left wing

reached Rocky Mount, Catawba river. 24th--Part of the left wing crossed the Catawba (or Wateree) river.

5th-Right wing and part of the left crossed the Great Pedee river. Davis' corps, of the left wing, moved up to Sneedsboro'.

6th-Davis crossed the Great Pedee, and the whole army was massed to move on Fayetteville. 7th-Left wing moved to near Downing river. 8th-Right wing at Laurel Hill.

9th-The whole army marched on several roads converging at Fayetteville to within twenty miles of the place.

10th Marched to within ten miles of Fayetteville in line of battle, anticipating an engagement with Hardee. Kilpatrick's cavalry struck the rear of Hardee's retreating forces near Fayetteville, and engaged Hampton in one of the finest cavalry bat

tles of the war.

11th-The whole army entered Fayetteville, hav ing been engaged in the campaign for fifty-four days, and having marched four hundred and fortythree miles.

Incidents by the Way.

Sherman's powers as a strategist were fully tasked on this eventful march. With the forces of Beauregard, Bragg, Hardee, Hampton, Hoke, Hill, Cheatham, S. D. Lee, Wheeler and Butler, numbering about forty thousand men all told, scattered over South and North Carolina, from Augusta and Charleston to Goldsboro', with an abundance of railways to enable them to concentrate and deliver battle, it is indeed marvelous how he avoided them, and safely carried his columns to the point of junction with Terry's forces, Twenty out of the fifty odd days' march were days of rain; the roads, consequently were deep with mud, and the rivers swollen to their fullest capacity. Yet steadily on his

27th-Left wing still engaged in difficult passage of the Catawba. General Carlin had a fight with Wheeler's cavalry.

28th-Right wing moved from Camden toward Cheraw, encamping on Lynch's creek, and halting for three days, waiting for the left wing, delayed at the Catawba river, to get up.

MARCH.

1st-Left wing moved to Hanging Rock. 2d-Left wing marched to Horton's ferry, or Lynch's creek.

3d-The left wing being up. the whole army crossed Lynch's creek.

flank terrible evidences of the cost of John C. Calhoun's philosophy to South Carolina. His first moves were directed to baffling the commands sent to barrass his march. Making it appear that Charleston was the point aimed at, the rebel forces at once began to concentrate at Branchville and below. But, suddenly, Slocum was pushed up toward Augusta. The enemy now believed that Sherman's feint was with the right wing, and the real blow would come from the left. Cheatham's and Hill's corps, withdrawn from the front of the right wing, posted off to Augusta,

monstrated against Augusta, Howard easily