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October, 1861

21-A Federal force, numbering about two thousand, having crossed the Potomac at Ball's Bluff, on a reconnoitering expedition, was met by the Confederates who drove them over the steep bluff, from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet in height, and sunk the scows on which they had come. About one-half of the Federals were drowned or shot. Colonel Baker, United States Senator from Oregon, was killed in this disastrous affair.

MARCH, 1862.

7 and 8--General Curtis, having driven General Price out of Missouri into Arkansas, the latter was superseded by General Van Dorn, whose force was raised to twenty thousand men. General Curtis defeated him in a bloody engagement at Pea Ridge, which was the last important battle in that State. A peculiar feature of this battle was the participation of an Indian force in it. Some five thousand of the red men had joined the Confederate army, but in disciplined warfare they proved to be utterly worthless. They were amazed at the sight of guns running around on wheels; they were amazed at the falling of trees behind which they took shelter, and were demoralized when the roar of the artillery drowned their war-whoops. "In a word," says Pollard, " their main service was in consuming rations." MARCH, 1862.

8-The Confederate iron-clad Merrimac entered Hampton Roads and attacked the Union fleet. The Merrimac was a frigate that had been scuttled before the Confederates captured the United States navy yard at Norfolk; but she was raised by the Confederates, roofed with rail-road iron, and strengthened with a huge iron beak. She sailed directly for the Cumberland, whose broadsides fell harmlessly on her sloping iron roof, and ran her prow into her. The Cumberland sank, but the crew continued to work the guns till she disappeared below the water. They would not strike the flag, which continued to float from the mast-head after the ship had gone down. The Captain of the Congress, seeing the fate of the Cumberland, ran his ship ashore, but under the fire of the Merrimac surrendered. The Merrimac rested until the following morning, when she was to destroy the rest of the Federal fleet. That night the Monitor, the first iron ship ever built, the "Yankee cheese-box," glided unperceived into the harbor. She was the invention of Captain John Ericsson. Her hull was only a few inches above the water, and her turrets revolved by steam-power to deliver her projectiles in any direction. In the morning the Merrimac moved to run down the frigate Minnesota. All was dismay among the Union fleet and elation on the Confederate side. The Monitor, of only nine hundred tons burden, darted out to meet the Merrimac of five thousand tons burden; and then began the first battle of iron ships in naval warfare. The Merrimac tried to run her little antagonist down, but "her beak only grated over the iron deck." The Merrimac, despairing of doing anything with " the queer-looking craft," withdrew to Norfolk. The result of this battle changed the navies of the world from oak to steel. "The effect of this contest," writes Barnes, "can hardly be overestimated. Had the Merrimac triumphed, aided by other iron vessels, then preparing by the Confederacy, she might have destroyed the rest of the Union fleet in Hampton Roads, reduced Fortress Monroe, prevented the Peninsular Campaign, steamed up the Potomac and terrified the Capital, sailed along the coast and broken up the blockade, swept through the shipping at New York, opened the way for foreign supplies, and, perhaps, secured the recognition of the Confederacy by foreign nations. On this battle hinged the fate of the war."

10-Manassas Junction, Va., was evacuated by the Confederates. They had held it since McDowell's defeat, but left it on the approach of the Federals. When occupied, the Federals found that the fortifications were imaginary, and that the position was defended by "Quaker guns "-logs shaped and painted in imitation of cannon, an incident which created much ridicule throughout the country at the time. 14-Burnside captured the important seaport of Newbern, which virtually placed all the coast of North Carolina in possession of the Federals. APRIL, 1862.

7-Island No. 10 in the Mississippi, surrendered to the Federal troops. The islands in the Mississippi are numbered from the mouth of the Ohio to New Orleans, and No. 10 proved to be of great strategic value. The Confederates occupied the Island, and Gen. Pope, who was on the Missouri side of the river, could not cross in face of the enemy's batteries. He therefore caused a canal to be dug through Donelson's Point, twelve miles long by fifty feet wide. A part of the way the canal ran through heavy timber, and the trees had to be chopped off four feet below the surface of the water. Gen. Pope had the work accomplished in nineteen days, and crossed with his steamboats and barges, capturing the batteries from the rear. The garrison, numbering seven thousand, surrendered on the same day the battle of Shiloh was fought.