assas Junction, about thirty miles southwest of Washington. In front of this position ran a stream called Bull Run, and along its line the first considerable battle of the war was fought on July 21. Beauregard's position threatened Washington, where General McDowell lay with about forty thousand men.

There was another little Confederate army, just over the mountains in the valley of Virginia, commanded by General

Joseph E. Johnston

Joseph E. Johnston.* But General Patterson, with a Northern force, had been sent to the valley to keep Johnston there and prevent him from joining Beauregard. He did not succeed in this. Johnston hurried to Manassas as soon as he heard that McDowell was advancing. He succeeded in getting a part of his army there on the night before the battle, and in bringing up the rest of it while the battle was in progress.

McDowell's plan was to cross Bull Run and attack Beauregard's left flank. A strong body of his troops succeeded in doing this. There was a sharp struggle here, and a part of the Southern army was driven back in some confusion. But General T. J. Jackson,* with a brigade of Virginians, stood firm and held the ground. It was then that General Bee rallied his brigade by crying out, There stands Jackson like a stone wall." From that time forward Jackson was always known as "Stonewall" Jackson.

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At this critical moment fresh troops from Johnston's army, led by Kirby Smith, came upon the field, furiously attacked the advancing Federals, and drove them back across Bull Run. In their undisciplined condition the Northern troops fell at once into a panic, which quickly spread throughout the army. It broke ranks, and fled in confusion all the way to Washington.

Effects of the Battle of Bull Run.-The result of this battle *For biography, see Appendix.

greatly encouraged the South, and made an impression favorable to the South in Europe. The defeat taught the North to be more patient. It taught both sides that the

war was to be a long and terrible one. While the fugitives from Bull Run were still pouring into Washington, Congress voted to raise five hundred thousand men. In August General McClellan, who had won some success in western Virginia, was put in command of all the Union armies in place of General Winfield Scott, who had been the General in Chief, but who was found to be too old for this crisis.

Summary.-1. Major Anderson removed his force from Fort Moultrie, in Charleston Harbor, to Fort Sumter, a stronger place. After several attempts had been made from the North to send supplies to Major Anderson, the Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter April 12, 1861, and compelled its surrender. This was the beginning of war.

2. Lincoln at once called on the States for seventy-five thousand men, Thereupon Virginia seceded, and the rest of the border States, with the exception of Kentucky and Maryland, followed her. The first bloodshed

of the war occurred on the 19th of April in a street fight between a Baltimore mob and a Massachusetts regiment.

3. Early in the summer the Federal troops in West Virginia won some small battles, but the first great battle of the war was at Manassas Junction, or Bull Run, on the 21st of July. The Federal General, McDowell, there attacked the Confederate General Beauregard. The Northern forces were defeated and fled back to Washington.

Collateral Reading.-Rhodes's "History of the United States," III., 347-355, 364-383, 397-405, 411-413, 442-450. Pollard's "The Lost Cause," 144-150.

CHAPTER XLVII

FROM BALLS BLUFF TO ISLAND NUMBER IO

Balls Bluff. For three months the Army of the Potomac did nothing but drill and build fortifications around Washington. Johnston's army lay at Centreville, and Confederate batteries were erected on the lower Potomac, which interfered with Washington's communication with the sea.

On the 21st of October a small and on the Federal side an ill-directed battle took place at Balls Bluff, on the Potomac above Washington. The Union troops were driven back to the river, and many of them captured. After this defeat McClellan did nothing more for months.

There was some activity on the part of the navy, and the forts at Hatteras Inlet and Port Royal, on the southern coast, were captured. The blockade of Southern ports was made stronger, but English vessels built for that purpose were constantly engaged in blockade running.

The Trent Affair.-The South had hope of persuading England to interfere in her behalf. English factories employing many thousands of men depended on the Southern States for their cotton. It was believed at the South that Great Britain would not long submit to a blockade which cut off the supply of cotton.

In the hope of securing recognition by France and Eng

land, the Confederate government sent out two commissioners, Mr. Mason and Mr. Slidell, to lay their case before England and France. The commissioners ran the blockade to Havana. There they took passage in the English mail steamer "Trent." Captain Wilkes, in command of an American frigate, overhauled the "Trent" at sea, boarded her, and took off Mason and Slidell. The affair very nearly led to war between this country and England. The English even sent troops to Canada, and prepared fleets for battle. The British government demanded that Mason and Slidell should be given up. William H. Seward,* who was Secretary of State at Washington, saw clearly that Captain Wilkes had been in the wrong, and with an adroit explanation which satisfied the people of the North he set the Confederate commissioners free.

Forts Henry and Donelson.-The Confederate line of defense ran across the country from Virginia through Cumberland Gap, and thence through Kentucky, by way of Mill Springs, Bowling Green, and Columbus, into Missouri. Two rivers, the Tennessee and the Cumberland, flowing northward and westward, crossed this line of defense. Near the border line between Tennessee and Kentucky the two streams lie within eleven miles of each other, and here the Confederates built Forts Henry and Donelson.

In January, 1862, General Thomas defeated a Confederate force under Crittenden and Zollicoffer near Mill Springs. Shortly afterward General Grant,* with fifteen thousand men, supported by Commodore Foote with a fleet of gunboats moved up the rivers against the two forts. The gunboats silenced the batteries at Fort Henry on February 6, 1862, before Grant arrived. The garrison retreated overland to Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland.

Grant moved at once upon that post. The gunboat fleet failed and was badly crippled in an attack upon the works there. Grant, now reënforced, surrounded the fort, and the Confederates undertook to cut their way out. On

*For biography, see Appendix.

the morning of February 15 they fell upon the right of Grant's army, and after a hard fight broke through it. Grant was absent in consultation with Foote at the time. When he came back and saw what had occurred he was convinced that the Confederates must have weakened their forces at other points in concentrating upon his right. He rode rapidly to the left, calling to his men to fill their cartridge boxes and get into line to prevent the enemy's escape. He pushed forward his left and captured a part of the Confederate work while his right was recovering the lost

ground in front. During the night after this battle General Floyd, the Confederate commander, escaped with a part of his army in two small steamers. General Pillow and General Forrest, with a few hundred men, got away on horseback over a submerged road. General Buckner, who was thus left in command, asked Grant what terms of surrender he would allow, and Grant made his famous answer, "No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." Fort Donelson surrendered February 16, 1862, with nearly fifteen thousand prisoners.