heard that she was up at Liverpool, in the Yazoo River, and Lieutenant-Colonel Ellet informed me that the river was too narrow for our gun-boats to turn, and was also shallow in places, but suggested that Flag-Officer Davis might send up some of his iron-clad boats, which draw only six or seven feet of water. "When this was proposed to Flag-Officer Davis he consented immediately, and General Williams offered to send up a few sharp-shooters. The next morning they went off at daylight, and by six in the morning we heard firing up the river, but supposed it to be the gun-boats firing at the flying artillery said to be lining the river. In a short time, however, the gun-boats appeared and the ram in pursuit. Although we were all lying with low fires, none of us had steam or could get it up in time to pursue her; but she took the broadside of the whole fleet. It was a bold thing, and she was only saved by our feeling of security. She was very much injured, and was only able to drift down at the lowest speed-say one knot-and with the current she got down to the forts at Vicksburg before any of us had steam up. "I had a consultation with Flag-Officer Davis, and we thought it best to take the evening, when he dropped down to take the fire of the upper battery, and my squadron passed down with the determination of destroying the ram if possible. But by delays of getting in position, etc., it was so dark by the time we reached the town that nothing could be seen except the flashes of the guns, so that, to my great mortification, I was obliged to go down and anchor with the rest of my fleet, to protect the transports, mortar-boats, etc. "The ram is now repairing damages, for we put many holes through her, though we do not know the extent of damage done to her. Be assured, Sir, however, that I shall leave no stone unturned to destroy her." It was quite evident that the Arkansas had received pretty severe handling from the fleet, as day after day passed and she did not venture from her moorings beneath the guns of the shore batteries. On the morning of the 22d another attempt was made to destroy the rebel ram. Flag-Officer Davis, about daylight in the morning, attacked with great vehemence the upper batteries with the gun-boats Benton, Cincinnati, and Louisville. Under cover of this fire the Essex and the Queen of the West rushed down the river at their utmost speed, to plunge upon the Arkansas, to endeavor to crush in her sides. The rebel ram was at her place at the levee under the batteries. The Queen of the West struck the Arkansas with sufficient force to do her some injury, but did not succeed in disabling her. The Essex delivered several very effective shots into the ram, but in endeavoring to strike only grazed her side, and ran with great force upon the bank. Here, for ten minutes, until she could be got off, the Essex was exposed to a terrible fire from the shore battery. The sickly season had now come. The most vigorous men wilted and broke down under the unintermitted and exhausting heat of that pestilential region. Men who were apparently well one day would sink away and die before the close of the next. Of one hundred and thirty men of the mortar fleet one hundred and six were sick and off duty. The crews of the gun-boats were, many of them, reduced to onehalf their number. Six hundred men were needed immediately to secure the efficiency of the flotilla. The rebels suffered even more severely than the patriots. Out of from eighteen to twenty thousand men on his rolls, he could scarcely muster five thousand in his ranks. They suf fered far more severely than our men from want of suitable hospital accommodations, medicines, and food. As it was manifest that the shore batteries could not be carried without the assistance of a far more powerful land-force than we then had, it was judged expedient to abandon the enterprise for the present. Flag-Officer Farragut was therefore instructed to drop down the river with his fleet to New Orleans, while the nation gathered its strength to strike the rebels on the bluffs at Vicksburg an effectual blow. Commander Porter was left below Vicksburg, with the Essex and the Sumter, to watch the movements of the enemy. On the 28th of July Flag-Officer Farragut returned to New Orleans with most of his fleet. The Katahdin and Kineo were left at Baton Rouge with a small land-force. On the 5th of August a rebel force of ten regiments, under command of General J. C. Breckinridge, made a vigorous assault upon the small force stationed at Baton Rouge. One of the most severely contested battles of the war ensued, in which General Williams was killed by a rifleball through the chest. About two o'clock in the afternoon of the 4th some friendly negroes brought the intelligence to the camp that the enemy was approaching. All possible arrangements were made for the menaced attack. At half past three o'clock the next morning the reveille was beaten, and our little army marched about a mile out of town to meet the foe. The enemy, however, appeared in such force that, after very severe fighting, we were compelled to fall back. Our troops experienced mnch annoyance from facing the blaze of the rising sun. But in defiance of every difficulty they manfully bore the shock of overwhelming numbers. The Sixth Michigan, with Nims's battery on the right, and the Fourteenth Maine, with Manning's battery on the left, won great renown. They were exposed for some time, in the open field, to the swarming foe who assailed them from the woods. The Thirtieth Massachusetts was sent to the aid of the hotly-pressed Michigan troops, but before they were in position the rebels were driven back. At the same time the Ninth Connecticut and the Fourth Wisconsin, which had been held in reserve, were ordered to advance to the aid of the left wing, but as they were rushing upon the field the foe sullenly retired. During the fight a portion of the enemy broke into the camp of the Twenty-first Indiana and burned it. But the despoiled regi-. ment took fearful revenge, in pouring into their disordered ranks a volley of balls, which strewed the ground with the wounded, and caused the survivors precipitately to retreat. The rebels also forced an entrance into the camp of the Twentieth Maine, where they encountered a similar fate. The Twenty-first Indiana fought with such desperation of courage that it is said | battle, enabling him to signal the gun-boats one of the rebel Generals, whose fortune it was where to throw their shells. These deathto encounter them, remarked: dealing missiles, hurled from the 11-inch guns "But for those accursed Indianians we of the boats, constrained the rebels to keep at should have taken Baton Rouge!" The gun-boats Essex, Sumter, Kineo, and Katahdin took glorious part in this conflict. The two former were placed in position to protect our left. They opened fire into the woods through which the foe was swarming, and with their screaming shells shattered the forest and scattered a storm of iron hail around the assailants. Signal-Officer Davis, of the Kineo, took a position on the tower of the State House, where he had an excellent view of the field of a respectful distance. It is said that one shell from the Kineo killed from forty to sixty of the rebels. When near the close of the engagement, Lieutenant-Colonel Keith, of the Twenty-first Indiana, was taken from the field severely wounded. Colonel Cahill says in his report that no words of his can do him justice. He adds: "He was every where, in every place, working his men through tents, trees, and under-brush like a veteran; and "Colonel Nickerson, of the Fourteenth Maine, had his horse shot from under him by a discharge of grape. He sprang from under his dying steed, and waving his sword called upon his men for one more charge. The men sprang forward with three roaring cheers, and drove back the advancing foe." But we have no space to record the individual acts of heroism. It was near the close of the battle when General Williams fell, mortally wounded. He had just said to the men of the Twenty-first Indiana, as their gallant Colonel was borne wounded from the field, leaving the regiment in command of Captain Grimsley: "Boys, your field-officers are all gone. I will lead you!" The men responded with three cheers. Just at that moment the fatal bullet pierced the bosom of the General and he fell. It is not too much to say, in the words of Colonel Cahill: "That more undaunted bravery, coolness, and skill has not been displayed in any battle-field than on that of Baton Rouge, and that too by officers who never before handled troops in a fight." As the discomfited rebels retired the gunboats continued pitching shells into the woods every half hour during the whole night. But the DESTRUCTION OF THE ARKANSAS. foe was far away on the rapid retreat. Our small land-force, weakened by sickness and exhausted by heat and fatigue, were not in a condition to pursue. The Union force engaged numbered less than two thousand five hundred. The enemy had at least five thousand, with twelve or fourteen field-pieces and some cavalry. About thirty of their number were captured, and they left seventy wounded men upon the field.* The Essex ran by her crippled antagonist, which could only bring one gun to bear upon her, and taking a position about five hundred yards distant, opened upon the ram with three guns charged with solid shot. One of these balls struck the bow of the Arkansas, and though it produced a deep indentation the ball was split in two by force of the concussion. The correspondent of the New York Herald, as quoted in Harper's Weekly, writes: "Commander Porter then ordered the same gun to be loaded with an incendiary shell of his own invention, and fired, entering just where the solid shot had struck. Imwithout moving the gun to take a new aim the shell was sas, and in a short time the entire vessel was on fire. It is supposed that the condensed cotton, with which the Arkansas is packed, caught fire from the shell, and communicating thence to the wood-work, soon wrapped the monster in flames. After burning till all her upper-works were destroyed she swung off into the stream, where she blew up with a terrific explosion." It was in the plan of attack by the rebels that while Breckinridge with his overpowering force fell impetuously upon our little garrison, the Arkansas was to crush and sink our gun-mediately a jet of flame was shooting up from the Arkanboats. Our boats were all ready to receive her, but the Arkansas did not make her appearance. It was therefore decided for the gun-boats to take a trip up the river to ascertain what had become of her. On turning a bend of the stream the monster ram was seen close to the bank, evidently disabled. rebel gun-boats, the Webb and the Music, were hovering around her. Prudently they retired as soon as our little fleet hove in sight. The Essex led, followed by the Sumter, the Kineo, and the Katahdin. Two * Colonel T. W. Cahill's Report. Lieutenant G. Weitzel's Report states the rebel force at 6000, ours at 2000. WHILE the sun, with parting glances, To the polished shaft, which flies · How old Walton loved his hook We are anglers too, they say, Yet we do not hide the hook, Soon after this, by the 23d of August, Baton Rouge was evacuated by the Union troops. But the exultant rebels on the river's banks found that the transient lull in the storm of war was only the prelude of a tempest which swept the Mississippi of every incumbrance, and restored the majestic stream to the undisputed possession of the nation. CROCHET. And, with lingering touch and slow, But my dreams are shifting ever. I am striving now to weave me, From the thread which Clotho gave me, As shall fold me evermore Here a knot is in the worsted. For concealment of the knot. In the bustle of the morrow. So, while twilight shades are falling, From beyond the garden wall; Thus its charms my cares beguile, THE NATIONAL CEMETERIES. equip him in advance for the Happy Hunting Grounds. The European does no more, when with more enlightened view he commits his friend to the earth-"Dust to dust, whence it came"-and erects a simple tablet, or costly mausoleum, in some village grave-yard, or urban cemetery, to commemorate his deeds and perpetuate his fame. They both follow out the same ideal, the best and highest in them, the truest and noblest thought of their natures; but the ignorance and savagery of barbarism appear in the one, in the other the touching beauties and refinements of a Christian civilization. Human history, indeed, concurs in this respect, though we do not know what it is that should every where induce such reverence and care for those who have gone from us and apparently are of no further account to us, unless THE war for the Union is over. Our sur viving veterans are once more among us, and the country tenders them its gratitude and homage. We meet them in all the highways and by-ways of life, bronzed of feature, and a little stiff and precise, perhaps, from the pursuit of arms ; but there is that in the glance of their eye and firmness of tread that speaks of work well done, and the people welcome them to their hearths and homes as the crowned heroes of the age. Society, without distinction of clique or party, unites to do them honor. Doting mammas and blushing maidens smile upon them. Law and Physic invite them to their high walks; Trade and Commerce throw open their august portals and bid them enter. Even politicians forget their brawls, and cordially unite, as seldom before, on some soldier because strongest with the people, and, there-it be that vague hope and "anxious longing fore, most "available" for candidacy. The scramble for "soldier" candidates between the two political parties, pending the elections of last fall, was most amusing to the on-looker; but it was also most instructive, because it showed the strong and decided drift of the popular current, which none detect more quickly or measure more accurately than our shrewd political managers. And we hold this is right and fitting-eminently so, and in all respects. For it is but a just Reward of Merit. It is the Nation's silent but hearty Vote of Thanks. It is but our natural and inevitable hero-worship after great deeds done. It is only mankind's unconscious testimony to the high dignity and worth of bravery and pluck. 66 -Men, who their duties know, But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain;" these are the men whom mankind unite to reward and honor, and so may it ever be. But while we all agree to honor and reward our living heroes, we must not forget that there are solemn duties we owe also to the dead. Both duties belong equally to true patriotism, and an enlightened civilization will surely regard one as but the complement of the other. It may be that death is an eternal sleep, and the grave the end of all things, as some "small philosophers" hold. But the instincts of humanity recoil from the doctrine, and with all right-thinking men care for the dead stands close to reverence for God. Indeed, to respect and care for the dead is no modern sentiment. Such was the practice in the ruder ages and among the coarser civilizations, and in even the most materialistic times it keeps steady pace with all humaner developments. The same reverent idea prevails every where among mankind, and similar results appear ever to follow. The Indian of the plains elevates his dead upon a rude scaffold, with food and implements of the chase by his side, to keep his remains from desecration and for immortality" which all possess and none can satisfy, but which by this means we yet seek unconsciously to express and gratify. True, different nations in different ages have had different methods of embodying the sentiment, but all have sought the same reverent result. By some the dead were burned, and their ashes preserved in sacred urns. In India, and some other countries, this custom still prevails to some extent. And we have read somewhere of a Russian prince who, on the death of his wife, to whom he was very tenderly attached, submitted her body to some German chemists, who reduced it by scientific processes to so small a compass that he could wear it as a stone in an ordinary seal ring. But the usual custom, from time immemorial, has every where been to commit the dead to the bosom of mo ther earth. Hence we find burial-places and cemeteries established by law, and consecrated by religion, from the earliest ages. The word cemetery itself comes from the Greek, Konthpiov, meaning literally a "sleeping-place." In the German we have the corresponding words Friedhof, "Court of Peace," and Gottesacker, "God's Field." These all came to mean indifferently a place set apart and kept for the sepulture of the dead. Among the Hebrews the first care on arriving at a new place was to select burial-grounds. Their cities usually had cemeteries outside of the walls. That of Jerusalem, it will be remembered, was in the Valley of Cedron. The Greeks, before they adopted the Phrygian custom of burning their dead, had what they called their "sleeping-field." At Athens the most common place of interment was near the road leading to the Peiræus, outside of the Ionian Gate, which on that account was also styled the Burial Gate. Those who had fallen in battle, however, were buried at the public expense, in the famous Ceramicus, the most beautiful suburb of Athens, which had been adorned with walks, and fountains, and columns, and |