last day of January, 1863, the Confederates at Charleston, being doubtless fired with the wish of emulating the exploits of their friends in Texas, sent down two ironclads, which, attacking the blockading fleet, compelled one of them, the Mercedita, to surrender, and disabled another, the Keystone State. But upon other ships coming up, the Confederate iron-clads sheered off, and retreated up the harbour. The naval and military commanders in Charleston then solemnly declared the blockade to have been raised, and the port to be open! In April, Commodore Dupont, in the Ironsides, led nine iron-clads to the attack of Fort Sumter. That fort, as is very generally known, stands on an artificial island in mid-channel, just within the entrance to Charleston harbour. It had five faces, built up with very solid masonry, and armed with guns in casemates; its heaviest pieces, however, were mounted on the top of the parapet en barbette. From a flagstaff on one of its angles floated the Confederate flag; another flagstaff at the opposite angle bore the Palmetto flag, the banner of South Carolina. The iron-clads steamed up to the attack, but they found all sorts of obstacles in their way; and when they were near enough to commence firing, they were overwhelmed by such a storm of heavy missiles from Fort Sumter and the Moultrie and other batteries, that after one of his ships, the Keokuk, had been riddled and reduced to a sinking state, and others much damaged, while no serious impression had been made on Fort Sumter, Commodore Dupont made the signal to retire. No attempt was made from this time to force a way up the harbour with the iron-clads.

But if there was one object on which the Republican party at the North, and their representatives administering the Federal government, had set their hearts more fervently than another, it was the reduction and humiliation of the proud little city where first the flag of secession had been raised, the first shot fired at the Stars and Stripes. Dupont seemed to be at the end of his invention; he was therefore recalled, and the command of the blockading fleet given to Commodore Dahlgren. About the same time-a change of much greater significance General Hunter, who hitherto had charge of the department of the Carolinas, was superseded by General Gillmore, an engineer officer of great capacity. Gillmore, after a careful survey of the ground, determined upon the following plan of operations:-to land, first of all, a strong force on the southern end of Morris Island (the island which forms the south-west side of the outer portion of Charleston harbour); reduce Fort Wagner, a powerful sand redoubt near the northern end of the island; and, planting batteries on Cumming's Point, the extreme point of the same island, overlooking the harbour, bombard and dismantle Sumter from thence. This was an able and profound conception, and Gillmore immediately proceeded to carry it out. General Strong, with 2,000 men, was landed, without loss (July 10), on the south end of Morris Island. Batteries were then traced and armed within short range of Fort Wagner. The bombardment opened on the 18th July, and was aided by the guns of the fleet; the garrison of Fort Wagner,

their fire being quite overpowered, retired within their bomb-proofs; and General Strong, believing the defences to be ruined, ordered a general assault. The Federals advanced bravely to the moat, but only to be mown down with great slaughter by enemies of equal courage and all the advantages of position. The assailants were beaten back with the loss of 1,500 men. In this engagement fell Colonel Shaw, at the head of a negro regiment organised in Massachusetts, which advanced to the assault with great gallantry, and lost many men. This was the first coloured regiment raised in a free state. Colonel Shaw was a hereditary Abolitionist; and the Confederates, it is said, vainly thought to heap indignity upon him by "burying him in the same pit with his niggers." Mr. Greeley warms into cloquence on this occasion and says: -"His relatives and friends gratefully accepted the fitting tribute; and when, in due time, a shaft shall rise from the free soil of redeemed Carolina above that honoured grave, it will perpetuate, alike for leader and for led, the memory of their devotion to the holy cause whereto they offered up their lives a willing sacrifice."

This seems a fitting opportunity to make a short digression, for the purpose of examining to what extent the coloured people had been hitherto employed in the war, whether on one side or the other.

In the War of Independence the revolted colonies freely employed negro soldiers at first, whether free or bond, but afterwards decided not to enlist any that were not free. British governors-Lord Dunmore in Virginia, for instance-often offered freedom to any negroes who would leave their masters and enlist in the King's service; and a considerable number did so enlist and were turned into valuable soldiers. Had the war continued two or three years longer, the course of events would have probably led, even then, to the extinction of slavery.

In the short war of 1812, negroes were employed on one memorable occasion by General Jackson, in his famous defence of New Orleans. He publicly and vigorously reprobated the "mistaken policy" which had hitherto excluded them from the service, and emphatically attested their bravery and good conduct while serving under his eye.

General Hunter, commanding in the Carolinas, and General Phelps, in Louisiana, under Butler, were the first that endeavoured to raise negro regiments, though at first with little encouragement from their superiors. The danger of alienating Kentucky and Missouri still more than they were then alienated, by doing what would please the Abolitionists, was deemed for a time a sufficient ground for discountenancing the enlistment, and consequent emancipation, of slaves. But when negroes came flocking in great numbers to the Federal commanders encamped in slave states, entreating to be employed or fed, as their masters had quitted the plantations, leaving them with no means of subsistence, the difficulty of rejecting them became so great as to be insurmountable. Butler himself, who had roughly thwarted General Phelps in his project for enlisting negroes, was compelled by the necessities and perils of his position to appeal to the free coloured men of New Orleans to take

up arms in the national service. The appeal was responded to with alacrity and enthusiasm, and a first regiment, 1,000 strong, filled within fourteen days; all its line officers coloured as well as the rank and file. His next regiment, raised soon afterwards, had its two highest officers white, all the rest coloured. After Banks had succeeded Butler at New Orleans, these regiments came in for their full share of military hardships and perils. Especially is it recorded to their honour that they took part in the desperate assault on Port Hudson, on the 27th May, 1863, when they are said to have vied with the bravest; "making three desperate charges on rebel batteries, losing heavily, but maintaining their position in the hottest forefront to the close."

The Confederate Government, when it first heard of the efforts that were being made by Generals Hunter and Phelps to enlist negro soldiers for the Union armies, was furious. Jefferson Davis, the Coufederate President, issued an order directing that "said generals be no longer regarded as public enemies of the Confederacy, but as outlaws; and that in the event of the capture of either of them, or of any other commissioned officer employed in organising, drilling, and instructing slaves, he should not be treated as a prisoner of war, but held in close confinement for execution as a felon, at such time and place as he (the President) should order." The cloven foot comes out here portentously. It is a fair act of war to arm and enlist any of the inhabitants of a country with which you are at war, if they are willing to serve you; though the penal consequences to them of disloyalty, if caught, may be of the most terrible description. Had the Confederate leaders viewed the slaves as men, they must have regarded the matter in this light; but they looked on them as chattels, as creatures not endowed with a reasonable will, as bimanous animals, useful when kept to labour, but capable of frightful mischief if they broke loose from restraint. Their anger, therefore, was directed, not against the slaves themselves, but against those who abused their feeble intelligence to induce them to turn against their kind masters.

Nevertheless, the enlistment of slaves went on, and not on the Federal side only. The Confederate commanders had impressed negroes in large numbers for auxiliary services long before the Federals thought of raising negro regiments. They took rather a pride in doing so, as if to show that they were not afraid to trust their slaves with arms. Mr. Greeley says:-" The credit of having first conquered their prejudices against the employment of blacks, even as soldiers, is fairly due to the rebels." But after Mr. Lincoln had issued his proclamation of January, 1863, emancipating all slaves in states then in arms against the United States, the balance of negro availability inclined greatly in favour of the Federals. It is not in human nature that a slave should fight as well in an army arrayed for the maintenance of the institution of slavery, as his brother in the opposite ranks, who fights for its abolition.

From this digression, we return to the narrative of the siege of Charleston. The assault on Fort Wagner having failed, there was nothing for it but to approach the

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place by regular parallels; and trenches were opened without delay. Perceiving at the same time that by planting rifled guns in the swamp between Morris Island and James Island he could reach Charleston, though the distance was not less than five miles, Gillmore caused a solid platform to be constructed with infinite labour in the marsh, and mounted upon it an 8-inch rifled Parrot gun. The soldiers christened this gun the "the Swamp Angel." Before opening fire, Gillmore summoned General Beauregard (who was in command at Charleston) to abandon Morris Island and Fort Sumter, on penalty of the bombardment of Charleston. General Beauregard being away on some special service, the messenger returned without an answer, and Gillmore then opened fire (August 21). From that time till the end of the year an intermittent bombardment of the city was kept up. The "Swamp Angel," after several of its shells had reached and exploded in the lower part of Charleston, though without destruction of life, burst at the thirty-sixth discharge. But Gillmore was soon afterwards able, in the manner presently to be related, to plant batteries a full mile nearer to Charleston, by means of which a full half of the city was brought within shell range, and, after the loss of some lives, abandoned by most of its inhabitants; while many of the buildings, including some of the most substantial and costly edifices, suffered severely. The effects of this bombardment were thus described by the correspondent of a northern paper, who entered Charleston after its evacuation by the Confederates:

"Not a building for blocks here that is exempt from the marks of shot and shell. All have suffered more or less. Here is a fine brown stone bank building, vacant and deserted, with great gaping holes in the sides and roof, through which the sun shines and the rain pours; windows and sashes blown out by exploding shell within; plastering knocked down; counters torn up; floors crushed in; and fragments of mosaic pavement, broken and crushed, lying around on the floor, mingled with bits of statuary, stained glass, and broken parts of chandeliers. Ruin within and without; and its neighbour in no better plight. The churches, St. Michael's and St. Philip's, have not escaped the storms of our projectiles. Their roofs are perforated, their walls wounded, their pillars demolished, and within the pews filled with plastering. From Bay Street, studded with batteries, to Calhoun Street, our shells have carried destruction and desolation, and often death, with them."

This wanton destruction does not appear to have been justified by any recognised maxim or usage of the Law of Nations. It was useless for any military end, for it did not shorten the Confederate tenure of Charleston by a single day. Like the Prussian bombardment of the churches and civil buildings of Peronne and other places in the French War, the design seems to have been to break down the resistance of the defenders of the place through the moral impression caused by the infliction of severe sufferings on non-combatants. This, though consonant to the usages of ancient warfare, has been supposed to be proscribed by the more humane spirit of modern times. The celebrated American publicist, Dr. Wheaton,

lays down that, "by the modern usage of nations, which has now acquired the force of law, temples of religion, public edifices devoted to civil purposes only, monuments of art, and repositories of science, are exempted from the general operations of war."*

Meantime, the siege of Fort Wagner was steadily carried on, and a rain of shot and shell poured into it incessantly, both by the batteries on Morris Island and by the blockading ships. At length, after a protracted and heroic defence, when the sap of the besiegers was now pushed up to the edge of the counterscarp, and the assault was ordered for the following morning, the garrison evacuated the place in the night. Though 122,300 pounds of metal had been hurled at the fort within the past two days, at short range, from breaching guns, none of them less than a 100-pounder, its bomb-proof was found substantially intact, and capable of sheltering 1,500 men. Sand was proved to possess a power of protracted resistance, to the fire of heavy ordnance far surpassing that of brick or stone. Fort Wagner was abandoned on the 7th September. On the following day, an unsuccessful attempt was made to take Sumter by an expedition of boats from the fleet. The fort had been nearly silenced, and greatly damaged by the fire of the Morris Island batteries, and Admiral Dahlgren seems to have counted on a feeble resistance. But no sooner had the crews from three boats landed on the crumbling debris than the garrison opened a heavy fire, which sank the boats, and killed or wounded a considerable number of the stormers: the rest surrendered. The other boats drew off unhurt.

General Gillmore had supposed that after Sumter was disabled, the iron-clads would be in a position to steam up the harbour and appear before Charleston. But the naval authorities took a different view; and so the siege was turned into a languid bombardment, which was carried on irregularly till nearly the end of the war. In December, one of the finest vessels of the blockading fleet, the Weehawken, foundered. Nothing of great importance happened in North Carolina during 1863.

While the United States were thus distracted by civil war, and not in a position to assert, much less to enforce, what is called the Monroe doctrine, that is, the claim of the United States to prevent European states from intervening in the internal affairs of American states, the French Emperor was playing his game prosperously in Mexico. The capital fell into the hands of General Forey this summer, and the project of erecting an imperial throne in Mexico attained shape and consistence before the end of the year. All this had sprung out of the unpretending joint expedition agreed to by England, France, and Spain at the close of 1861. Mexico had so vexatiously and so long evaded its pecuniary obligations to its English and Spanish creditors, and had left so many outrages on individual Englishmen and Spaniards unredressed, that the Governments of the two countries were at last compelled to resort to coercive measures. France also desired to be a party to the convention, nor was it at

• Wheaton's "International Law" (1857), p. 420.

first understood that the aims of the French Emperor differed materially from those of his confederates. The expedition sailed in December, 1861, having on board 6,000 Spanish soldiers; the English military contingent was only a force of 700 marines; the French contingent was at first weaker than that of Spain, but it was soon increased. A landing was effected, without resistance, at Vera Cruz. On the 10th of January, 1862, the Allied Commissioners published a manifesto, addressed to the Mexican people, couched in somewhat ambiguous language, yet declaring that neither conquest nor political dictation was the object of the Allied Powers, which had long beheld with grief a noble people "wasting its forces and extinguishing its vitality through the violent power of civil war, and perpetual convulsions," and had now landed on their shores to give them an opportunity of constituting themselves in a permanent and stable manner. Yet all this time the views of the French Emperor were extended to ulterior aims of which his allies never dreamed. A pamphlet, well known to be "inspired," from the facile pen of M. de la Guerronière, appeared in Paris about this time. The writer enlarged eloquently on the fundamental differences in endowment, temperament, and ideas, which distinguished the Teutonic from the Latin race. The great Republic of North America had a constitution which was well suited to the practical turn and calmer temperament of a Teutonic people; for them republican institutions were characterised by greater stability than any other. But with a community belonging to the Latin race, the case was far otherwise. Such a people, being endowed with livelier imagination and keener susceptibility of feeling, was morally incompetent to restrain itself, in those ever-recurring political contests which democratic institutions necessitate, within the limits which a Teutonic people can observe without effort, and which prudence and the spirit of compromise imperatively dictate. In all the communities of Latin blood, both in North and South America, which have tried republican institutions on a large scale, the result has been failure. Convulsion has followed convulsion, and an actual retrogression of civilisation has been the consequence. The remedy for this is to adopt a new principle of action, to adapt your institutions to the genius of the people that is to use them. A Latin people loves to give its assent once for all to the form of government under which it is to live, and then to leave to its rulers the duty of administration. Its dignity being consulted by the fact of its being called upon to authorise the Government under which it lives, it thenceforward desires to see that Government strong, centralised, and respected. Such speculations, and many more to the same effect, clearly pointed to the regeneration of Mexico by Cæsarism-to an Emperor and a plébiscite.

When, then, after the issuing of the manifesto, the commissioners of the Allied Powers began to exchange ideas, and to communicate to each other the exact nature of the instructions emanating from their respective Governments, the divergence of view between the French and the other two commissioners soon became apparent. The object of England and Spain was simply, by occu

A.D. 1863.]

pying a portion of the Mexican sea-board, to obtain a material guarantee for the redress of the wrongs of which their subjects had to complain. Whether this was done by the Government of Juarez (who was then President), or by any other Government, was a matter of perfect indifference to England and Spain. But the French commissioner-evidently with an eye to the eventual introduction of an imperial régime—refused, on the plea of perverseness, renewed outrages, and general impracticability, to hold any communication with the Juarez Government. The commencement of a split was here visible. However, the English and Spanish commissioners, Sir Charles Wyke and General Prim, opened negotiations with the Government of Juarez. But there was a certain General Almonte in the French camp, who was well known as a promoter of the scheme for substituting imperial for republican institutions. The Mexican Government required that Almonte should be sent away; but to this the French commissioner refused to consent. A conference between the commissioners of the Allied Powers and others to be deputed by the Mexican Government, to meet at Orizaba, in April, was agreed to by Prim and Sir Charles Wyke, but rejected by the French commissioner, who insisted that, instead of negotiating with Juarez, the proper course for the Allies was to march at once upon Mexico. Hereupon Prim and Sir Charles Wyke, finding that their views and those of their colleague were irreconcilable, withdrew on the part of their respective Governments from the expedition. General Lorencez, at the head of the French expeditionary corps, then advanced towards Mexico. At Puebla, the gates of which he expected would be opened to him, he met with a vigorous resistance from the Mexican army (May 5, 1862), commanded by General Zaragoza. The French sustained a severe check, and were compelled to fall back upon Orizaba. Here Marquez, a general of the Church party, joined Lorencez at the head of 2,500 men. It was not, however, deemed advisable to attempt a fresh advance until a reinforcement of troops had been obtained from France. This the French Emperor, on learning of the repulse at Puebla, hastened to send, appointing General Forey to the command in Mexico, and dispatching him across the Atlantic with 2,500 fresh troops. Forey landed at Vera Cruz about the end of September; but nothing more was effected that year. The Emperor, at least in words, was careful to disclaim all appearance of dictation to the Mexican people as to their choice of a Government; but the honour and interests of France required an intervention in the affairs of that Republic; and if, under the shelter of that intervention, the respectable portion of Mexican society chose to adopt monarchical institutions, so much the better for all parties. In his letter of instructions to General Forey, the Emperor concludes thus:-"At present, therefore, our military honour engaged, the necessities of our policy, the interests of our industry and commerce, all conspire to make it our duty to march on Mexico, boldly to plant our flag there, and to establish either a monarchy, if not incompatible with the national feeling, or at least a Government which may promise some stability.”

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Early in March, General Santa Anna-who had been President of Mexico during the war with the United States, in 1847-8, and who doubtless believed that the establishment of a strong central Government, under French protection, was the most likely means of securing his country from future insult and dismemberment on the part of the Americans-landed at Vera Cruz (he had been many years an exile), and declared his adhesion to the French policy. The army had already commenced its march; Puebla was soon reached, and besieged in form. On the 29th March, Fort San Xavier, one of its principal defences, was attacked and taken by assault. "For the first time," says General Forey," the Mexicans felt the points of our bayonets; they gave way before the impetuosity of our attack." Puebla surrendered on the 18th May, under rather extraordinary circumstances. General Ortega, who commanded the garrison, as tho supplies of the place had begun to run short, proposed to capitulate, but on condition that the garrison should be allowed to leave with all the honours of war, and with arms, baggage, and artillery to withdraw to Mexico. General Forey refused to listen to this, and sent word in reply that the garrison might leave with all the honours of war, but that they must march past the French army and lay down their arms, remaining prisoners of war. These proposals," says General Forey in his despatch, were not accepted by General Ortega, who, in the night between the 16th and 17th May, disbanded his command, destroyed their weapons, spiked his guns, blow up the powder magazines, and sent me an envoy to say that the garrison had completed its defence, and surrendered at discretion. It was scarcely daylight, when 12,000 men, most of them without arms or uniforms, which they had cast away in the streets, surrendered as prisoners; and the officers, numbering from 1,000 to 1,200, of whom twenty-six were generals and 200 superior officers, informed me that they awaited my orders at the Palace of the Government."

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There was no more serious resistance after the fall of Puebla, on the defence of which the Government of Juarez had expended all its resources, and in attempting to relieve which the Mexican General Comonfort had been defeated on the 13th May. Juarez withdrew to San Luis de Potosi, and, on the 10th June, the French army entered Mexico, the capital. The throne of Montezuma was now at the disposal of the conqueror, if indeed on that volcanic soil, mined by revolutionary passions and disintegrated by the convulsions of forty years, the erection of a throne were possible. A provisional Government (June 24) was first established, which took measures to convene an Assembly of Notables." This assembly composed of 215 members, taken, we are told, indiscriminately from all classes, though it is not likely that any very influential friends of republican institutions were among them-was requested to deliberate and determine what form of government ought to be definitively established in Mexico; the vote on the question to unite at least two-thirds of their suffrages. On the 10th July, the Assembly resolved that Mexico should adopt monarchical institutions, and that the imperial