LEADING WARS OF THE CENTURY By MAJOR GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER, U. S. ARMY.

I. WARS OF THE UNITED STATES.

The progress of the nineteenth century, in everything that pertains to civilization, arts, and sciences, has been greater than the total progress in any decade of centuries in the history of the world, and this is equally true in regard to the art and science of WAR; for the expenditure of blood and treasure in the prosecution of the wars and the fighting of the battles of this century far exceeds that of any other like period.

The first year of the nineteenth century dawned upon the United States at peace with the world. In September, 1800, Napoleon, finding that he could not coerce the young nation into “an entangling alliance,” and fearing lest the United States should join England in opposing him, found it his best policy to conclude a peace. The brilliant achievements of the newly organized navy, under Commodore Truxton, not only illuminated these early pages of our history, but established a prestige never yet forfeited; for the history of this branch of our service is unparalleled from the first effort, during the Revolution, of Esek Hopkins, to that of George Dewey at Manila, and Sampson and Schley at Santiago.

War with Barbary States.—In 1803 the United States determined to end the piracy of the Barbary States, and an expedition under Commodore Preble was sent to the Mediterranean. The Philadelphia, while pursuing a pirate, was grounded off the coast of Tripoli, and captured by the Tripolitans, who made slaves of the crew and prisoners of the officers. In February, 1804, Captain Decatur, with seventy-six men from his ship, the Intrepid, boarded the Philadelphia, killed or drove off the Moors, fired the vessel, and returned without the loss of a man, although fiercely attacked by the shore batteries. In July, Commodore Preble, with his squadron, laid siege to Tripoli, but his bombardment was ineffective. General Eaton, consul to Tunis, induced Hamet, the brother of Yusef, who had usurped the sovereignty of Tripoli, to furnish him a troop of Arab cavalry and a company of Greeks. With these, and a band of Tripolitan rebels and a force of American sailors, he crossed the Barcan Desert, stormed and captured Derne, an eastern seaport of Yusef. The latter was glad to make peace, and a treaty was signed June 4, 1805.

Indian Wars.—From 1809 to 1811 fighting with the Indians in the South and Northwest was constant. General Harrison and the celebrated Indian chief Tecumseh were the principal actors.

War of 1812.—The contest between England and France for the dominion of the seas was the cause of the war of 1812. England declared the German and French coast to be in a state of blockade. Napoleon, in 1806, made the same declaration regarding British ports. In 1807, England prohibited trade with the coast of France. American commerce was injured and almost destroyed by the combined action of the two powers. Four years were consumed in negotiations, with constant aggressions on the part of England, and on June 19, 1812, Congress declared war. The great error of the campaign was the attempted invasion of Canada. Had the war been made entirely upon the seas, an early peace might have ensued.

The war began on the Lakes, and, repulsed in the effort to make a stand on the Canada shore, and falling back, Hull surrendered Detroit, August 5. Again, at Queenstown, October 13, the Americans were defeated with the loss of a thousand men. Altogether the first year of the war was a disastrous one on land.

COMMODORE STEPHEN DECATUR.

At sea, the navy, consisting of not more than a half-dozen frigates, with its magnificently disciplined officers, had been eminently successful. On August 13, the Essex, Captain Porter, captured the British sloop Alert; on August 19, Captain Hull, commanding the Constitution, destroyed the Guerriere off the Gulf of St. Lawrence; October 18, the Wasp, Captain Jones, captured the Frolic, but later in the day both the Frolic and the Wasp fell into the hands of the British ship Poictiers. October 25, Captain Decatur, with the frigate United States, captured the Macedonian off the Azores; on December 29, after a desperate fight in the South Atlantic, Captain Bainbridge, commanding the Constitution, defeated the British ship Java.

The campaign of 1813 opened on the Canadian frontier with the several divisions in command of Generals Harrison, Dearborn, and Hampton. On June 8, General Winchester, with eight hundred Kentuckians, drove the British and Indians, under Proctor, from Frenchtown, on the River Raisin, but returning with a force of fifteen hundred, they obliged Winchester to surrender, which he only consented to do under Proctor’s promise to protect the Americans from the Indians; which promise Proctor treacherously disregarded, and marched away, leaving the sick and wounded Kentuckians to be massacred. Henceforth the Kentucky war cry was, “Remember the River Raisin,” and many were the British and Indians who had cause to dread that slogan. May 5, General Harrison, reinforced by General Green Clay and his Kentucky troops, repulsed the British and their dusky allies under Tecumseh. July 21, they returned four thousand strong, but were again repulsed.

COMMODORE PERRY AT BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE.

The Americans, by wonderful exertion and hard work, built and equipped, at Erie, a squadron of nine ships with fifty-five guns, the command of which was given to Commodore Perry. September 10, Perry won his grand victory on Lake Erie, over the English squadron of six ships and sixty-three guns. This was the turning point of the war, and Perry’s name goes down to posterity with the immortal names that never die. On October 5, General Harrison, conveyed by Perry’s ships, landed his forces in Canada and completely destroyed Proctor’s army, Tecumseh being among the slain. So ended the war in the Northwest.

In the meantime, General Dearborn was fighting with varying success in Upper Canada. Jackson, in the South, was avenging the Fort Mimms massacre, finally crushing the Creeks early in the next year. The British, under the odious Admiral Cochrane, plundered and ravaged and burned everything in reach, from Lewistown to the Carolina coast, seizing the negroes and selling them in the West Indies. During this year the American navy continued to be successful, meeting few losses, though the fighting was even more desperate.

July 5, 1814, the Americans defeated the British at Chippewa; and on the 25th was fought the battle of Lundy’s Lane, where Generals Brown and Scott were wounded. In this desperate battle, eight hundred men were lost on either side; and though the battle was undecisive, it had the effect of a victory for the Americans. August 14, five thousand troops, under General Ross, were landed on the Patuxent, and, defeating General Winder, who made a stand with a handful of men near Bladensburg, proceeded to the city of Washington. After burning the capitol and White House, and other buildings, they hastily withdrew. The attempt to take Baltimore proved abortive, and on September 14 the British reëmbarked. It was at this time that Key wrote the “Star Spangled Banner.” August 15, the enemy were repulsed at Fort Erie with the loss of one thousand men, and a month later were finally driven back. The whole British squadron on Lake Champlain surrendered to Commodore MacDonough after a terrific fight for several hours, on September 17, and on the same day the British army of twelve thousand was forced to retreat from Plattsburg by General Macomb’s force of forty-five hundred.

In Florida the Spaniards had allowed, if not encouraged, the English to use their territory to fit out expeditions against the United States. Jackson, with two thousand men, took possession of Pensacola on the 7th of November, driving out the British.

December the 28th the British opened fire on New Orleans; again, on January 1, 1815; and on January 8 Packenham, with twelve thousand men, made his supreme effort. Jackson’s force was now about six thousand. The British were driven to their ships after losing two thousand killed and wounded, their general being among the slain. The American loss was seven killed and six wounded. The war was kept up on the ocean until March, the last capture being that of the British brig Penguin by the American sloop-of-war Hornet, in the South Atlantic.

The treaty of Ghent had been signed on the 24th of September, 1814, and the news of the glorious victory at New Orleans reached Washington simultaneously with that of the signing of the treaty. The war had been so distasteful to the people of New England that Massachusetts and Connecticut had passed laws directly antagonistic to those of the United States, and hostilities between the Federal and State governments were feared, which, perhaps, were only averted by the ending of the war. The issues leading to the war of 1812 were left unsettled by the treaty, but England never again attempted to interfere with American shipping.

Second War with Barbary States.—Immediately on the close of the war of 1812, the Algerians, supposing that the American navy was badly crippled, began again their depredations on American commerce. Commodore Decatur was sent to the Mediterranean with a squadron, and once more gave them an American drubbing. June 17, 1815, he destroyed two Algerine vessels; June 28, in front of the city of Algiers, he demanded the release of all American prisoners, indemnification for all property destroyed, and a relinquishment of all claims for tribute from the United States. The Dey quickly assented to the terms, and signed a treaty of peace. Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco were likewise brought to terms, the United States thus taking the lead of all the other powers in its determination to break up the piracy of the Barbary States.

Mexican War.—The Republic of Texas became, by its own request and by Act of Congress, one of the United States July 4, 1845. Mexico prepared for war; the United States took measures to protect the new State. March 8, 1846, General Zachary Taylor marched with fifteen hundred men to a point on the Rio Grande opposite Matamoras, where he erected Fort Brown.

SCHOOLSHIP SARATOGA.

To the secretary of war, William L. Marcy, and to General Winfield Scott was due the plan of campaign, the battles of which, like instantaneous flashes of victory from the beginning of the war until its close, illumine the pages of American history. Then, as now, Congress was slow to respond to the needs of the military branch of the government.

April 24, 1846, hostilities began. General Taylor advanced into Mexico and, May 8, won the brilliant victory of Palo Alto, and again, the next day, the battle of Resaca de la Palma. Taylor’s force was less than one third the number of the enemy, whose loss was one thousand. These two battles crushed the flower of Santa Anna’s army. Taylor returned to the relief of Fort Brown, where the brave garrison had sustained a cannonade for 168 hours. September 24, Monterey and its garrison of nine thousand men were taken by General Taylor with six thousand.

February 23, 1847, Taylor gained the glorious victory of Buena Vista, in which the Mexican loss was 2000, the American, 714. At times the Mexicans were within a few yards of Bragg’s guns. “A little more grape, Captain Bragg,” was Taylor’s celebrated order, the execution of which decided the day. The American loss was severe in officers. Taylor’s force, depleted by more than two thirds, which had been sent to reinforce General Scott, was barely forty-five hundred; the Mexican troops numbered twenty thousand. Captain Fremont, assisted by Commodores Sloat and Stockton, had subjugated California; General Kearney and Colonel Doniphan, Northern Mexico. Doniphan defeated the Mexicans at Bracito, December 25, 1846, and at Sacramento, February 8, 1847, and took possession of Chihuahua, a city of forty thousand inhabitants, and marched to join General Wool at Saltillo, March 22.

Early in January, 1847, General Scott reached the mouth of the Rio Grande, where he awaited the eight thousand troops sent by General Taylor. This raised his force to twelve thousand. These were landed at Sacrificios. The Americans debarked just below Vera Cruz between sunset and ten o’clock on the night of March 8 without a single accident. With wonderful skill the investiture of Vera Cruz and the castle of St. John de Ulloa was completed. On March 22 the Governor of Vera Cruz was summoned to surrender. Day and night the mortar batteries played upon the city, the fleet ably assisting; and on the 29th the stars and stripes floated above the walls of city and fortress. The Americans lost but two officers and a few soldiers. April 18, the magnificent victory at Cerro Gordo, where three thousand Mexicans were captured, was won; April 19, Jalapa was taken; April 22, Pecote, the strongest of Mexican forts, was captured; and May 15, Puebla surrendered to General Worth. Ten thousand prisoners, seven hundred cannon, ten thousand stands of arms, and thirty thousand shot and shells were captured within two months. When the army entered Puebla it numbered but forty-five hundred.

Reinforcements reaching him, Scott set out from Puebla to the valley of Mexico on August 7. August 20, the heights of Contreras were assailed and taken, and the battle of Churubusco—with nine thousand Americans against thirty thousand Mexicans—was fought and won. September 8, Molino del Rey was taken; September 13, the heights of Chapultepec. The Mexicans fled from the capital, and the victorious American army marched in and took possession of the city, September 14, 1847. Here Scott and his noble warriors rested until the treaty was concluded at Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848, and peace was proclaimed, July 4, by President Polk. Guadalupe Hidalgo, New Mexico, and California were ceded to the United States, $15,000,000 paid to Mexico, and the debts due from Mexico to American citizens were assumed by the United States.

The Civil War.—It is not here the place to rehearse or to discuss the causes which led to America’s Civil War, a war perhaps the most stupendous recorded in history. Looking backward, after the bloody foot-prints have been well nigh obliterated by the growth of a generation, we can see that the trend of human progress, the political problems confronting the federated States, in the solution of which were evolved elements of discord, the inherited antagonism between the Puritans of the North and the Cavaliers of the South, all combined to make the conflict inevitable. For more than a decade of years grievances had been growing and rumblings were heard, like the imprisoned fires beneath the surface of the earth, until the election of Abraham Lincoln as President, pledged to a policy believed to be inimical to the South, caused the outburst of the volcano, whose fierce fires and molten lava for four years spread desolation over the land.

ROBERT E. LEE AT CHAPULTEPEC.

Time and milder judgment have very nearly smoothed away the wrinkles of discord, and the close of the century finds the nation a reunited people, whose new compact is written in the life-blood of her sons on the battlefields of the recent war with Spain.

December 20, 1860, South Carolina; January 9, 1861, Mississippi; January 10, Florida; January 11, Alabama; January 18, Georgia; January 23, Louisiana, and February 1, Texas, one by one asserted their supposed right to withdraw from the federal compact, and enacted ordinances of secession in their several state conventions. Each State, as it took action, claimed and possessed itself of all government property, forts, guns, ammunition, within its borders, and armed its militia for garrison duty. A convention of delegates from the seceded States, held February 4, 1861, at Montgomery, Alabama, organized a new federation, to be known as the Confederate States of America, chose Jefferson Davis President and Alexander Stephens Vice-President, and set the whole machinery of a provisional government in working order. July 20, Richmond became the capital of the Southern Confederacy. Virginia seceded April 17; Arkansas, May 6; North Carolina, May 20, and Tennessee, June 8. Kentucky declared neutrality.

Lincoln, upon assuming the executive chair, March 4, 1861, found the treasury depleted, the army of only sixteen thousand men scattered in the West, and many of its best officers already with the Confederacy. The navy had been sadly neglected by Congress, partly because this branch of the service had been steadily antagonized by the West, so that at the beginning of the war, both as to vessels and armament, it was by no means in a condition for active service. As in the army, some of its most valuable officers had espoused the cause of their native States, and the South Atlantic and Gulf ports, being in possession of the new federation, left the United States vessels no place of refuge. With unlimited means at command, the Union navy increased the number of its vessels to 588—75 of them ironclads—with 4443 guns and 30,000 men, before the end of 1862. Torpedoes and steel rams were first used during this war, and monitors, just invented, were used by the United States. With a nucleus of 10 vessels, around which to build its navy, the Confederacy had, by November, raised the number to 34. Until the blockade became effective, “cotton was king;” for, in October, 1861, the Nashville, running out with a heavy consignment, brought back into Charleston in exchange a cargo worth $3,000,000. Vessel after vessel was bought from English shipbuilders, among them the celebrated Alabama, which, in the fourteen months of her service, captured sixty-nine prizes, and destroyed ten million dollars’ worth of merchandise. The armored ram Stonewall was bought in France.

April 12, 1861, Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, was forced to surrender to the Confederates, and the first shot at the old flag ushered in the long, bitter struggle.

Troops were called for by Lincoln. Lieutenant-General Scott, the veteran hero of Mexico, was in command of the army. In three months, three hundred thousand men were in the field. One hundred thousand had swarmed to the Confederate ranks. General McClellan was sent to the front and, after the resignation of Scott in the latter part of the year, was made commander of the army.

July 21, the battle of Bull Run was fought. The Union troops were disastrously routed and retreated in confusion to Washington. The army did little more during this year.

CASTLE WILLIAM. MILITARY PRISON, GOVERNOR’S ISLAND, NEW YORK HARBOR.

April 21, after setting fire to and destroying the Navy Yard and ships, Norfolk was evacuated by the Union forces. The frigate Merrimac, which had been sunk, was raised by the Confederates, plated with iron, renamed “Virginia,” and became the scourge of the shipping off the Virginia coast.

The navy, as is usual, and because of its very organization, got in its effective work much earlier than did the army, and the seizure of the forts and ports on the coast of the seceded States began at once. Fort Hatteras was taken August 29; Port Royal, in South Carolina, November 7. November 7 a naval officer, by overhauling an English mail steamer and taking off Messrs. Mason and Slidell, who had been appointed commissioners of the Confederate States to France and England, very nearly caused a complication with the latter power. Mr. Seward’s diplomacy settled the incident amicably, and the commissioners were allowed to proceed upon their mission, which, however, proved futile. By the close of the year, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, at first doubtful, were securely in the Union, though many of their citizens were in the Southern army.

1862.—February 6, General Grant, commanding the army of the Tennessee, with the assistance of Commodore Foote and his gunboats, captured Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, and, on the 16th, Fort Donelson on the Cumberland. The Federal forces had reached the number of four hundred and fifty thousand, of which McClellan had two hundred thousand.

May 23, at Front Royal, and May 25, at Winchester, “Stonewall” Jackson defeated the Union troops and forced them across the Potomac. Banks, Fremont, and McDowell, concentrating their forces, bore down on Jackson, who slipped through their lines, and, on June 9, defeated Shields at Fort Republic.

The cry of the Northern press was, “On to Richmond,” and McClellan endeavored to obey the command. He had arrived not far from the city, between the York and James rivers, when he was defeated in the bloody battle of Seven Pines, May 31 and June 1. The Confederate General Johnston was wounded, and General Lee was assigned to the command of the army of Northern Virginia, which he retained until the end.

The Seven Days’ battles, from June 25 to July 1, were fought at fearful cost to the Confederates; nevertheless, “it was a glorious victory,” and the siege of Richmond was raised. Lee advanced toward Washington, met the armies of Banks and Pope, and defeated them in the second battle of Bull Run, August 29 and 30, and at Chantilly, September 1 and 2, forcing Pope’s army to retreat to Washington. The clamor in the South had been, “On to Washington.” Lee crossed the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry and took twelve thousand prisoners. McClellan, who had been recalled, met the Confederates at Sharpsburg (Antietam), September 17, and fought a battle with undecisive results. Each side lost about ten thousand men, and Lee returned.

The Union army under Burnside, who had superseded McClellan, met a fearful repulse at Fredericksburg, December 13, with a loss of fourteen thousand. The Confederate loss was five thousand.

December 31, January 1 and 2, was fought the terrible battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where Bragg’s force was 35,000, and his loss in killed, wounded, and missing, 10,466. Rosecrans’s force was 43,400, and his loss 12,595.

March 8, the Virginia attacked the Union fleet at Fortress Monroe and destroyed the Cumberland and the Congress. The next day, the Monitor attacked the Virginia, and, after five hours’ fighting, succeeded in disabling her so that she returned to Norfolk. The Virginia was destroyed by the Confederates before evacuating Norfolk, May 10.

Admiral Farragut, with a fleet of 45 vessels, entered the Mississippi and bombarded the forts of St. Philip and Jackson. Despising the fear of mines and torpedoes, he continued on his course, defeating the Confederate fleet, and, together with General Butler, entered New Orleans April 25. During this year the navy, with the assistance of land forces, had retaken all important ports on the Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia coasts, seriously interfering with the blockade running, upon which the Confederacy depended for its foreign supplies. The year 1862 closed with no advantage having been gained on either side.

GENERALS ROBERT E. LEE AND STONEWALL JACKSON.

1863.—On January 1, Lincoln issued the threatened Emancipation Proclamation. This destroyed the last hope of the Confederacy for recognition by England. No event of importance occurred before the middle of spring, when Hooker, who had relieved Burnside, made another advance upon Richmond, and was routed by Lee and Jackson at Chancellorsville, May 2, and on the 5th was forced across the Rapidan with a loss of seventeen thousand. The Confederate loss was less than five thousand. In Jackson’s death the Confederacy received a blow, the consequences of which may never be estimated.

Lee’s army again crossed the Potomac for an invasion of the North. The Union forces, under Meade, marched in an almost parallel line with Lee’s through Maryland into Pennsylvania. They met and fought at Gettysburg, July 1, 2, and 3, one of the decisive battles of the world’s history. Lee was forced to again retire beyond the river. The Union could well afford the loss of twenty-three thousand men, but Lee’s loss of twenty thousand of the choice troops of his army was irreparable.

In the meantime, Grant had been sent to open the Mississippi, and after a six weeks’ siege, on July 4, Vicksburg, with nearly thirty thousand prisoners and vast quantities of stores, fell into his hands. These two almost simultaneous victories greatly encouraged the North, and formed the turning point in the history of the war. July 9, Banks’s victory at Port Hudson accomplished the desired possession of the Mississippi River.

Bragg, who had been sorely pressed by Rosecrans, made a stand at Chickamauga, defeating the Union General Rosecrans, September 19 and 20, and forcing him to retreat to Chattanooga, where he was besieged by Bragg. Grant, with Sherman, coming to his aid, the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge were fought, November 23 and 25, and Bragg was driven back into Georgia.

The Federal navy was gradually taking possession of the whole coast, and Charleston was tightly blockaded. In March the Confederate ship Nashville was sunk in the entrance of the Savannah River.

During this year both governments were forced to resort to conscription. Lincoln ordered a draft, and, in July, a three days’ riot in consequence prevailed in New York, during which two million dollars’ worth of property was destroyed.

1864.—In March, Grant was put in command of the whole Union army, the grade of lieutenant-general having been revived in his behalf. He left Sherman in command, repaired to Washington, and, May 3, started on the third campaign against Richmond, with a force of one hundred and forty thousand. Sherman, with one hundred thousand, was to march to Atlanta. The whole strength of the Union army at this time was about seven hundred thousand. Grant had spent some weeks in formulating his plans of campaigns, from the main features of which he never deviated. The Union had at last found the man, and at the same time had acquired the wisdom to leave the conduct of the war to his judgment; proving, also, that “there is no war on record that has not given its man to the world or shaped the destiny of some other.”

Crossing the Rapidan, Grant encountered the Confederates, and the fighting, on the 5th, 6th, and 7th, of the battles of the Wilderness, was terrific, but the result undecisive. At Spottsylvania he fought from the 8th to the 18th with fearful loss. June 1, he was repulsed at Cold Harbor, and again on the 3d, and fighting, more or less desultory, continued in that vicinity until the 12th. Since the opening of the campaign, the Union army had lost sixty thousand men; the Confederate thirty thousand. Grant moved on Petersburg and began the siege which lasted from June until the next April. The western part of Virginia had seceded from the eastern portion, and, June 20, was admitted into the United States.

GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT.

To divert Grant, and, if possible, to raise the siege of Petersburg, in July, Lee sent General Early to threaten Washington and Baltimore, which he accomplished without, however, affecting Grant’s position. Returning laden with spoils, Early turned, and driving back the Federal troops invaded Pennsylvania, burning Chambersburg, and came back again bringing vast quantities of supplies. Sheridan was sent to dispose of Early and to ravage the valley. At Winchester, he met and defeated Early in a very severe fight on October 20, almost destroying the force under that general’s command. Sherman set out for Chattanooga on May 7, marching towards Atlanta. At Dalton he met General Johnston’s army of fifty thousand men. Johnston’s masterly retreat from Dalton to Atlanta is unrivaled in military history. He made a stand from May 25 to June 4 at Dallas, but, being outflanked, was obliged to fall back. The next stand was made at Great Kenesaw, on June 22, when he repulsed the Federals. On the 27th, Sherman made a powerful assault, but was again repulsed with a loss of four thousand, Johnston’s loss being four hundred; but, again outflanked. Johnston was forced across the Chattahoochie, and July 10 found the Confederate army entrenched in Atlanta.

Johnston’s retreating tactics caused the people to clamor for a “fighting leader,” and Davis, in transferring the command from Johnston at such a crucial time, committed a grave error. Johnston was superseded by General Hood, whose chief ambition was to fight, which, in this case, was a great mistake in judgment. On the 20th, 22d, and 28th of July, Hood assaulted the lines of the besiegers, only to be repulsed again and again. In these fights more men were lost than during Johnston’s long, skillful retreat. An injudicious movement by Hood separated his command, obliging him to evacuate Atlanta, of which Sherman, on September 2, took possession. In its advance on Atlanta, the Union army had lost thirty thousand men. Hood saved his army and made his way towards Nashville, hoping to divert Sherman from Georgia. At Franklin, November 30, he met General Schofield, and drove him back to Nashville, from whence General Thomas made a sortie, and fell upon Hood’s troops, December 15, completely routing them. In the two fights, Hood lost in killed, wounded, and captured over eleven thousand. With the remnant he escaped into Alabama, and these finally reached Johnston, participated in his last fight with Sherman, and were surrendered at Raleigh with the troops of their old commander.

November 14, Sherman burned Atlanta, cut all telegraph lines and began his “March to the Sea,” ravaging, devastating, and utterly destroying everything in his reach. He was opposed by the Confederate cavalry, which successfully defended the cities of Macon and Augusta, upon which the Confederacy mainly depended for the manufacture of munitions of war. Sherman entered Savannah on December 22, the advance having cost him only 567 men killed and wounded.

SHERMAN’S MARCH TO THE SEA.

On June 19, the celebrated sea fight between the Kearsarge and the Alabama took place off Cherbourg, France. The Alabama was sunk after a five hours’ fight. Admiral Semmes was rescued by the Deerhound, belonging to an English gentleman, and thus saved from capture. August 5, Commodore Farragut, overcoming the Confederate ram Tennessee and the gunboats, sailed into Mobile Bay, commanding his fleet from the maintop of his flagship.

1865.—The opening of the campaign of 1865 found Grant’s army still before Petersburg. On April 2, he ordered an attack along his whole line, which had been so lengthened that the lines of Lee’s depleted army were very thin. The Confederates were driven back with heavy loss. Lee telegraphed to Davis: “My lines are broken in three places; we can hold Petersburg no longer. Richmond must be evacuated this evening.” That night Admiral Semmes, in obedience to orders, destroyed the Confederate fleet in the James River. Richmond was in the possession of the Union forces the next day, and on April 4 Lincoln held a reception in Davis’s vacated mansion. Lee attempted to break through Grant’s lines at Appomattox, but closely pursued by Sheridan, and finding further retreat impossible, he surrendered with about twenty-six thousand men on the 9th of April.

Grant’s magnanimous terms were worthy of his fame. The troops were paroled on condition of promise not to take up arms until exchanged. The officers were permitted to keep baggage and side arms, and all were to retain their horses, as, Grant said, “they would be needed in the crops.”

LEE’S SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX.

Turning northward from Savannah, Sherman continued his march and reached Fayetteville, North Carolina. Wilmington had been captured early in the year by a land and naval force. Johnston had been reinforced by the garrison which had been forced to evacuate Charleston and the remnant of Hood’s army, and had several severe fights, with no decisive results, with Sherman, who entered Raleigh; and here, on April 26, Johnston’s army surrendered on the same terms given by Grant.

December 31 and January 1 Fort Fisher was captured, and on January 12 Wilmington was entered by the Federals; February 18, Charleston was captured.

The regular battles during the Civil War numbered 892. Lincoln called in all for 2,690,000 men. There were actually in service 1,490,000. There were 400,000 disabled; 304,369 perished; 220,000 were captured, and 26,000 died in captivity. The expenses of the war were $3,500,000 per day. The national debt was $2,700,000,000.

This great American War was fought on both sides with a courage and fortitude never before experienced in the annals of warfare. As compared with the statements of forces and losses in battles of European armies, the casualties in the battles of the Civil War were three and four times as great. And this proves that in the American War each side met “foe-men worthy of their steel.” These overwhelmingly fearful casualties are not to be explained otherwise. And each section respects the other more than before the war—a war in which the conquered felt not, nor said, peccavi, and in which surrender to greater numbers and heavier artillery involved no sacrifice of belief in the truth and justice of their cause. Was there ever an armed strife that brought forth greater generals or more knightly valor, undiminished courage and unflinching fortitude on the part of combatants? Together must the names of Grant and Lee go down to posterity as great types of the American soldier,—the one, noble and generous in victory; the other, though a hero uncrowned by success, a warrior still more heroic in defeat.

The Spanish-American War.—The proximate causes of the war with Spain are tersely set forth in the Joint Resolution declaring the independence of Cuba and demanding the withdrawal of Spanish sovereignty therefrom, which says:—

“Whereas, The abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the island of Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating as they have in the destruction of a United States’ battleship, with 266 of its officers and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbor of Havana, and cannot longer be endured, as has been set forth by the President of the United States in his message to Congress of April 11, 1898, upon which the action of Congress was invited; therefore,

“Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled:

“First, That the people of the island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and independent.

“Second, That it is the duty of the United States to demand, and the Government of the United States does hereby demand, that the Government of Spain at once relinquish its authority and government in the island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters.

“Third, That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States, and to call into the actual service of the United States the militia of the several States to such extent as may be necessary to carry these resolutions into effect.

“Fourth, That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said Island, except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination when that is completed to leave the government and control of the Island to its people.”

This resolution was signed by the President at 11.24 o’clock A. M., April 20, 1898.

MORRO CASTLE, SANTIAGO, CUBA.

It was on February 15, 1898, that the catastrophe referred to—the blowing up of the Maine—occurred. On April 25, the formal declaration of war was made.

Spain had three fleets,—Admiral Cervera’s flying squadron, the Asiatic fleet under Admiral Montejo, and Admiral Camara’s fleet of heavy armored vessels.

The American navy is always ready for emergencies, and even with the grudging appropriations made by Congress, the “new navy,” while not possessing vessels of such large size as those of some other nations, was much more formidable than was generally supposed. Congress, apprehending the outcome, had given the President $50,000,000 to put the country on a war footing. In reply to the call for 125,000 volunteers, five times that number offered themselves.

It had been more than fifty years since the United States had encountered a foreign foe, and since the close of the Civil War, for a third of a century, peace had reigned.

ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY.

April 25, by cable to Hong Kong, Commodore Dewey was ordered to find and destroy the Spanish Asiatic fleet, which he proceeded to do on May 1st, without the loss of a single man. Entering Manila Bay, scorning torpedoes and mines, his wonderful battle at Cavite is the admiration of the world.

Schley, with his flying squadron, watched in Hampton Roads for an attack by the enemy on the Atlantic coast. Havana was blockaded by Sampson’s squadron April 22, and his searchlights seen from the Cuban capital were as the handwriting on the sky, foredooming Spanish rule. His tactics were to take no risk with his vessels while awaiting the appearance of the Spanish ships, so he failed to return the greeting of the shore batteries.

MAIN DECK OF CRUISER CHICAGO.

The first casualties of the war were in Cardenas harbor May 11, when upon the Winslow, while chasing a decoy gunboat too far under the fire of the land batteries, Ensign Bagley and four sailors were the first men of the navy to lay down their lives.

It was known that Cervera had sailed from Cadiz toward the West Indies. Sampson made a tour of Porto Rico to hunt the Spaniard, who mysteriously eluded the sight of the Americans. San Juan was bombarded on May 12. On May 30 Schley, who in the meantime had arrived off Santiago, dispatched: “I have seen the enemy’s ships with my own eyes.” Cervera had then been in the harbor ten days. On the 31st, Schley commenced a bombardment, and the forts at the mouth of Santiago harbor and the vessels within replied for an hour. June 1 Sampson came, and all hope of escape for Cervera was cut off. On that night Lieutenant Hobson executed his bold, heroic plan of sinking the Merrimac in the channel of the harbor, which was accomplished without the loss of one of his seven co-heroes, although subjected to a deadly fire from forts and vessels.

DEWEY’S GUNS AT MANILA.

The first troops landed on Cuban soil were the marines, 650 in number, under Lieutenant-Colonel Huntington. This battalion had been on board the Panther since May 22, and the men were eager to land. After Sampson had shelled the shore and adjacent hills and woods, on the afternoon of June 10 the landing was made and the American flag raised for the first time on Spanish territory in the west. No Spaniards were seen until after the tents had been erected and the evening shadows were falling. Then for five nights and days there was no sleep for these men, than whom there were no greater heroes in this short, sharp war. With few exceptions they received their “baptism of fire,” and nobly did they acquit themselves.

I am told that when almost utterly exhausted the first platoon reached the summit of Cusco hill, so exactly in unison was their fire that the Spanish, believing that machine guns were opening upon them, turned and ran, never again making a stand. The first to consecrate the soil with his life’s blood was Dr. John Blair Gibbs, who left a $10,000 practice in New York to go as surgeon of the battalion, and who had greatly endeared himself to both officers and men. Sergeant Goode, one of the finest subalterns in the corps, and four men were killed. The good condition and health of this battalion during the whole campaign were due to the fine organization of the commissariat and the strict discipline maintained in this corps.

General Shafter arrived off Santiago, June 20, with a force of 773 officers and 14,564 men. General Garcia, the Cuban commander, with four thousand insurgents, was at Assuadero, eighteen miles west. There he, Shafter, and Sampson held a consultation. On the 22d, the disembarkment of troops was begun. On the morning of the 23d, General Lawton with his division advanced to Juragua. Major-General Wheeler, after landing 964 of his force, pursuant to General Shafter’s orders, moved rapidly to the front, and, passing through Lawton’s lines, pushed on to Las Guasimas, attacking and defeating General Linares on the morning of June 24.

The entire American force was pressed forward under General Wheeler, General Shafter being detained on the ships to attend to the landing of the armament and supplies. On the 29th, the commanding general left his ships and pitched his camp on the Santiago road, and on the next day orders were given for an attack along the whole line. In carrying out these orders, General Lawton with about six thousand men attacked El Caney, a small town about five miles north of Santiago. The garrison consisted of 520 men, the defenses being one block-house and a shore fortification. It was not until four o’clock that General Lawton’s success was complete. His loss was 437 killed and wounded, and but 30 of the enemy succeeded in escaping and reaching the Spanish lines. While Lawton was moving on El Caney, the cavalry division, unmounted, and Kent’s infantry division were ordered to move forward. Crossing San Juan River at a point about five hundred yards from the enemy’s fortifications on San Juan ridge, the left of the cavalry rested on the main Santiago road and the infantry formed to the left of the cavalry. These troops were subjected to a very heavy fire in advancing from El Pozo, in crossing the river and in forming on the other side; they, however, most bravely charged the enemy in their strong position on Kettle Hill and San Juan ridge, and drove them precipitately from their strong fortifications; the American loss being 154 killed and 997 wounded. This placed the Americans in a position commanding the fortifications around the city of Santiago.

GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER.

(Copyright by Aimé Dupont, 1899.)

The Spanish fleet, consisting of five armored cruisers of 7,000 tons and 2 torpedo-boat destroyers, attempted to escape from Santiago at 9.30 o’clock on Sunday morning, July 3, just nine weeks after the destruction of Montejo’s fleet. Schley and Sampson destroyed the vessels and made prisoners of 70 officers and 1600 men; 350 were killed and 160 wounded.

THE TRUCE BEFORE SANTIAGO.

Fighting more or less severe occurred until the 10th, when negotiations for surrender were inaugurated, resulting in the capitulation of Santiago, July 16, the Spanish fortifications, twenty-four thousand prisoners, and a large amount of arms and ammunition. At noon on Sunday, July 17, 1898, the American flag was hoisted over the headquarters at Santiago.

General Miles started on the invasion of Porto Rico, July 25, and reached Guanica at daylight next morning. He landed with three thousand five hundred men, marched toward Yauco, five miles distant, which he entered after a skirmish, and was received enthusiastically by the citizens, as he also was at Ponce, where he was joined by General Wilson, who had come with the war ships, and who was made governor. The army continued on to San Juan along the military road, meeting very little opposition.

July 26, the French ambassador, M. Jules Cambon, acting for Spain, made overtures for peace. The protocol was signed on April 21, by M. Cambon and Secretary of State Day. A cessation of hostilities was proclaimed. At the very moment of the signing of the protocol, the last naval battle took place at Manzanilla, Cuba, and an artillery engagement at Aybonito in Porto Rico.

AGUINALDO, THE TAGAL LEADER.

The one-hundred-days Spanish-American war was concluded by the treaty of Paris.

It will be only in the retrospect that we may tell the results of this conflict. As the future unfolds them to our view, it may be that it will have been more momentous in its consequences than we can now determine. One thing it has proved, that is, that this nation is really reunited; for, from all sections and from all grades of life, men flocked together to fight and conquer under the old Stars and Stripes.

II. FOREIGN WARS.

Napoleonic Wars.—The long contest between France and Austria began when the Girondist ministry of France declared war, April 20, 1792. By the execution of Louis XVI., January 21, 1793, the Revolution threw down the gauntlet to all ancient Europe. England, whose sympathies had hitherto been more or less with France, began to take measures to bring about more cordial relations with the other powers of Europe. Spain, Portugal, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, for the time seemed to forget their several grievances as they found themselves confronted with a totally new move on the chessboard of European autonomy. The year 1794 saw the French Revolution progressing triumphantly, and all Europe, except England and Austria, appeared acquiescent in apathetic indifference. In 1795 the royalists made a supreme effort to recover power, but were crushed by the “Man of Destiny,” and the Directory, consisting of five members, of whom Carnot was one, came into power. Dominated by the martial genius of Carnot, “the organizer of victory,” the Directory won the confidence of the army. Scherer, the commander, lacked the qualifications to undertake a successful campaign against Austria, and Bonaparte, succeeding him, soon infused his own spirit into the army and bound it to himself with a devotion that never failed.

Early in the year 1800, Napoleon, having been made first consul, took up his abode in the old palace of the kings of France, the Tuileries. The history of Napoleon for the ensuing fifteen years is the history of Europe. It is, therefore, best to begin with the close of the eighteenth century, in order to appreciate the situation at the dawn of the nineteenth.

Austria and England, with several small German principalities, were still in arms against France. The plans and movements of the armies under Napoleon showed him to be verily a master in military skill. Opening this campaign, he left Massena with about eight thousand soldiers to hold the territory from Nice to Genoa, so as to keep the Austrian army in Italy busy. He sent the Rhine army, under Moreau, to threaten Bavaria and to secure the most important position between the Rhine and the Danube. Moreau drove the Austrians to Ulm, and disposed his left flank to support Napoleon. Meantime, he himself was recruiting another army for operations on the Po. Baron de Melas, commanding the Austrian troops in Northern Italy, besieged Massena in Genoa, which, after severe suffering, surrendered, leaving De Melas free to join the army of the Po. Napoleon was between de Melas and Austria. General Ott, with eighteen thousand men, attempted to reach Placentia, but Lannes, with twelve thousand, defeated him at Montebello, forcing him back to Allesandria. Napoleon hastened across the Po to Stradella to intercept De Melas and prevent his breaking through the French lines to Placentia.

NAPOLEON, 1814. (MEISSONIER.)

The night of June 13, 1800, the French army was scattered, watching along the Po and the Tessino for the Austrians, while their army, forty thousand strong, with ten thousand more not far distant, was ready at daybreak of the 14th to cut its way through the armies of France, and reach Placentia. The French force was but eighteen thousand, but Victor with his division held his position firmly, and the great leader, Kellerman, was in command of the cavalry. Backward and forward surged the battle with varying fortune, and at noon victory seemed perched upon the banners of Austria. De Melas was so certain that the battle was won that he galloped back to Allesandria and sent dispatches to that effect to the governments of Europe. General de Zach was left in command to conduct the pursuit and to drive the French across the Scrivia. Napoleon, dismayed, hoping against hope that Desaix, whom he had sent towards Novi the day before to look out in that quarter for De Melas, might hear the thunders of the battle and return, saw him in the distance, hurrying with his troops, who, though worn and tired, were eager for the fight, and Napoleon saw already the tide of battle turned.

Desaix had found no trace of the Austrians, but he had heard the sound of battle at day dawn, and he knew that De Melas was there, and that there he was needed, and not at Novi. He roused his division, and hastened back to Napoleon. A short conference with his chief, to whose questioning he answered, “The battle is lost, but it is only three o’clock, there is yet time to win another,” and the battle of Marengo, glorious in its consequences to Napoleon, stupendous in its carnage, was won; but Desaix, the brave paladin, lay dead upon the field. De Melas returned from Allesandria to meet the victorious army he had left—flying in disorder—thoroughly routed. On December 2, Moreau and Ney won the field of Hohenlinden, and the “peace of Luneville” was concluded, February 9, 1801.

The result of this campaign was the cession of Austria’s strongholds in the Tyrol and Bavaria to France, as also a number of important holdings in Italy. France secured the left bank of the Rhine, the Belgian provinces and Tuscany, and the king of Naples closed his harbors to England. In March, 1802, by the “treaty of Amiens,” peace was concluded with England.

The coalition of Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and Prussia, with France against England, in 1800, fomented by Napoleon, broke down in 1801, after Nelson’s battle of Copenhagen.

England had secured the supremacy of the sea and dominion over India, rescued Portugal, Naples, and the States of the Church from France, and restored the Sublime Porte to Turkey. Finding Napoleon again militating against her interests, and resenting his encroachments, England declared war against France in the spring of 1803. Russia espoused the cause of England, Prussia held off, and Austria was friendly, though not in fighting trim. The third coalition comprised England, Russia, and Austria.

Powerless to hurt England on the seas, Napoleon, who had the year previous been proclaimed emperor, attacked Austria, invaded her territory, captured her army at Ulm, proceeded to Vienna, and occupied a great part of the valley of the Danube. On December 2, 1805, the “Battle of the Three Emperors” (the battle of Austerlitz) was fought. The “Peace of Pressburg,” concluded December 26, left Austria shorn of her ancient prestige, her title of German Empire, and of a great part of her possessions. The “Sun of Austerlitz” melted the third coalition. In the meantime the battle of Trafalgar, won by the immortal Nelson, crushed the naval power of both France and Spain.

In September, 1806, Prussia declared war against France, and, to the amazement of Europe, alone undertook to engage armies flushed from their recent victories and still in Germany. October 14, Napoleon utterly defeated the Prussians at Jena and Auerstadt, and entered Berlin a conquerer, the king having fled to Königsberg. Russia came to the aid of Prussia, but arrived too late to accomplish anything except to check the advance of the French, whose armies wintered on the Vistula. The next summer, however, the Russians met their final defeat in this campaign at Friedland, and Königsberg was taken. The “Treaty of Tilsit” ended the operations of this fourth coalition July 7, 1807.

The fifth coalition against Napoleon comprised England, Austria, Spain, and Portugal. The decisive battle of this campaign was at Wagram, July 5 and 6, 1809, and terrible as were the consequences of his defeat to Austria, so crippled was Napoleon that he willingly granted the armistice of Znaim and concluded the “Peace of Vienna.” When the fifth coalition ended, Napoleon had acquired the Illyrian provinces and part of the Tyrol for France, and eventually the Emperor’s daughter, Maria Louisa, for his wife.

ADMIRAL HORATIO NELSON.

In 1812 came war with Russia, and that most disastrous campaign which cost France more than three hundred thousand soldiers and Napoleon his empire. Russia, England, Prussia, and Sweden formed the coalition now, and Turkey had made peace with Russia. Napoleon crossed the Niemen in June, halted at Wilna to put his new conscripts in better order, addressed words of sympathy to Poland, and took measures to keep Austria conciliated. The Russians retreated before him. He met and fought and defeated them at Smolensk, August 17; they retreated in good order, burning and destroying all in their reach. The terrible battle of Borodino was fought September 7; the defeated Russians again retreated in good order, pursuing the same tactics. Napoleon reached Moscow September 15, but the heroic measure of Russia in destroying that city was equal in its results to several victories. October 15, the French troops commenced their fearful retreat. The Russian armies grew bold, they harassed the French troops, weak from hunger and cold, and from Moscow to Wilna their progress was one continual guerilla warfare. From Wilna, their flight to France, December 5, was even more disastrous. Of the grand army that set out in the spring not one fourth ever returned.

Affairs in Spain had fared badly for France. Wellington defeated the French army in Spain, and finally expelled it. France, though sometimes shaken in her devotion by the conscription that was draining her children’s blood, still had faith in Napoleon, and in 1813, having raised another grand army, he undertook to subjugate Prussia. His first victory was on the plain of Lutzen. The Prussians and Russians retreated in good order through Dresden. Napoleon pursued and drove them from Bauken, on May 20 and 21, and established his headquarters at Dresden. Austria now joined the allies. In their attack upon Dresden, August 26 and 27, they were defeated, but Russian troops and the King of Bavaria coming up made Napoleon’s position untenable. The allies were awaiting him at Leipsic. The battle raged for three days, and Napoleon withdrew on October 19, utterly defeated.

January 23, 1814, Napoleon, having raised another army, left Paris to assume command. The allies—England, Austria, Prussia, and Russia—were more determined than ever to crush him. Many battles were fought, and the fortunes of war varied. Blucher defeated him at La Pothiers on the 1st of February. Napoleon was the victor at Montenau; unsuccessful at Soissons, March 3; victorious at Cravonne, March 7; and defeated by Blucher at Laon, March 9. With more than half his army lost, Napoleon worried the allies in their rear; but Blucher marched on Paris. The prestige of Napoleon and France in Europe was at an end.

The Empress and the regency retired to Blois. On March 31 Paris surrendered, and the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia entered the city. A provisional government, with Talleyrand at its head, deposed Napoleon on April 2, and on April 6 he abdicated. May 30, the First Peace of Paris was concluded between France and the allies. France was to have her boundaries as they were in 1792, and also her foreign possessions, except Tobago, St. Lucia, and Mauritius, which, with Malta, were ceded to England. The Bourbons, in the person of Louis XVIII., were restored; but the French people were not content, so that when Napoleon appeared at Cannes on March 1, 1815, he was greeted with joy, even by the troops sent out to oppose him. This astonishing news was communicated to the Congress of the Allies assembled at Vienna. The allied armies at once gathered on the borders of France, Wellington landed in Flanders, and Blucher’s Prussians joined him. Wellington, finding Napoleon in front of him, fell back to Waterloo, lest the approach of the Prussians should be cut off. Napoleon hurled his force on Blucher at Fluores, and victoriously drove him from the field on the 15th. Ney, who had been sent to confront Wellington, fought at Quatre Bras, and the following day joined Napoleon. On the 18th of June, 1815, Napoleon made his supreme and final effort to recuperate his lost fortunes and to reestablish his empire.

The story of the battle of Waterloo, than which none ever fought was more decisive in its consequences, has been told and retold. The battle was at first undecided, victory seeming to incline to Napoleon, though the English and Germans with unflinching heroism still held the field until the afternoon, when Blucher, with his Prussians, at last arrived. Napoleon perceived that the supreme moment was at hand, and that his only hope was to crush Wellington before Blucher’s advancing columns could be thrown into line of battle. He sent forward his magnificent Imperial Guard. They charged with chivalric splendor, fought with heroic desperation, were repulsed,—and the star of Napoleon set to rise no more.

Finding his cause irretrievably lost, leaving the remnant of his army in command of Marshal Soult, Napoleon fled and, failing to find a passage to America, surrendered. This battle, magnificent in its results, ensured to England a long peace, and raised her to the first rank, for military prowess, among the nations of the world.

Napoleon’s skill at Waterloo was up to the highest standard of his most glorious work; but he was overwhelmed by preponderance in numbers. His entire force with which he conducted this campaign was barely 104,000, while the combined armies of Wellington and Blucher numbered 220,000.

NAPOLEON’S RETREAT FROM WATERLOO.

The Congress of Vienna restored the ancien régime, replacing dethroned monarchs upon their hereditary domains, but the parceling out of the smaller territories showed the Powers to be quite as arbitrary as Napoleon himself. The semi-decade of passive submission to the “policies of princes” was broken in 1820 by general revolts in Europe. Spanish-American colonies, indignant at French interference in Spanish matters, began their struggles for independence.

Greek War for Independence.—Since the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, in 1453, Greece had been subject to Turkey. Out of the defeats of several rebellions against the greed, tyranny, and brutality of the Moslem,—particularly from the revolutions of 1770 and 1790,—grew the secret society of the Hetæria, cementing the union of the Greeks for the struggle beginning in 1821. It is claimed that ten thousand Greeks were slaughtered within a few days, and thirty thousand in less than three months.

Mahmoud, having failed in 1825 to crush the rebellion, called Mehemet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, to his aid. Mehemet sent Ibrahim, his son, with his army and navy, trained in the tactics of European warfare, into the Peloponnesus. Victory and devastation marked his course. Never was grander courage nor loftier bravery displayed than by the Greeks. The siege of Missolonghi lasted from April 27, 1825, until April 22, 1826. Athens was captured, June 2, 1827. The fleets of England, France, and Russia were cruising on the coasts to prevent attacks by the Turks on the islands. Approaching the bay of Navarino, they were attacked by the Turks and Egyptians, whose combined fleets were thereupon annihilated on October 20, 1827. The Sultan was forced by the powers to consent to the establishment of the kingdom of Greece, and his delay to do so was punished by Czar Nicholas, who declared war, crossed the Balkans, and at Adrianople in 1829 compelled the Sultan to recognize her independence, grant Christian governors to Servia, Moldavia, and Wallachia, and to yield Bessarabia to Russia.

Minor European Wars.—The French Revolution of 1830, placing Louis Philippe on the throne of France, brought about Belgium’s independence.

The Polish insurrection of 1831–32 lost Poland her last vestige of liberty, enchaining her irretrievably under the tyranny of Russia.

From 1840 to 1852 England was engaged in quelling periodic wars in her Indian possessions. In 1841, her army, numbering seventeen thousand men, perished in their retreat from Afghanistan. So with France in Algiers and Morocco. And revolts in Spain were more or less successful.

In 1842, England’s war with China, caused by seizure of opium, resulted in the cession by China of Hong Kong, the freedom of five other ports, and $21,000,000 indemnity.

In 1848, the revolutionary spirit broke out fiercely, and the people made strong leaps for liberty and constitutional government. In France, it overthrew Louis Philippe, establishing a republic, with Louis Napoleon President. In all Europe its echo resounded. Riots in Vienna forced Metternich to flee to England; Ferdinand, to take refuge in the Tyrol and to abdicate in favor of his son, Francis Joseph. Frederick William was compelled by the conditions in Berlin to promise a constitution. The Frankfort Assembly, in 1849, offered Frederick William the title and prerogative of Emperor of Germany, and though, because of his respect for the Hapsburgs, he declined the honor, he still took advantage of the sentiment that prompted the offer to so strengthen the dynasty that later it might be held.

Hungary rose against Austria in 1848, and almost won independence. Kossuth proclaimed Hungary a republic, and Nicholas immediately sent aid to Austria. The Russian army, 130,000 strong, joined the Austrians. The Hungarians retreated to Temesvar, where they were defeated with great slaughter, and Georgy surrendered, August 9, 1849. The name of Haynau, the Austrian commander, is held in execration for his awful cruelty to the conquered.

In the meantime Italy rose. Lombardy drove out the Austrians. Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, had declared war on Austria and crossed the Mincio, April 8, 1848. Radetsky, commanding the Austrians, lost Gorto and yielded Peschiera in May, but in June he forced the Papal troops, who were assisting Charles Albert, to surrender, and completely routed the Italians at Custozza, July 25, and entered Milan. Charles Albert was again defeated by Radetsky at Novari, March 23, 1849, and Venice was captured August 23. Charles Albert resigned his crown to his son, Victor Emmanuel, and died shortly after.

Pope Pius IX. was forced to flee from Rome. Mazzini established the Roman republic in November. Austria, by the close of the summer of 1849, had regained control of her disputed possessions. Louis Napoleon, taking part against Italy, occupied Rome with his troops, July 2, 1849, and drove out Mazzini and Garibaldi.

The Crimean War.—In 1853, Louis Napoleon wanted war. He fomented trouble between the Porte and Nicholas, which ended by a declaration of war by Russia. The Czar claimed and demanded the protectorate of Christians in Turkey. Austria, France, and England opposed the demand. Nicholas had intimated to the British minister at St. Petersburg that England and Russia should share the partition of Turkey,—showing that he was ready to carry out the will and aims of Peter the Great and Catherine. The Russian army was thrown across the Pruth into Moldavia, and was at first worsted by the Turks. In deference to the wishes of Austria and Prussia, Nicholas withdrew his army from the Danubian provinces, and so secured their neutrality. He dislodged the Turkish fleet at Sinope, November 4, 1853.

England and France allied with Turkey and declared war against Russia, March 28, 1854. The allied fleets and troops proceeded to the Black Sea. Sebastopol was the great arsenal of Russia. Twenty-seven thousand English, thirty thousand French, and seven thousand Turks were landed in the Bay of Eupatoria, thirty miles above Sebastopol, September 14, 1854, towards which, five days later, the southerly march began. The allies waded the river Alma under terrific fire from the large Russian army, and won a brilliant victory. The attack was remarkable in that it won victory over superior numbers in seemingly impregnable positions, and in spite of official blunders. Mentschikoff, the Russian general, withdrew the crews from the ships in the harbor and put them, eighteen thousand strong, in command of the batteries. With his own army he marched out of Sebastopol, leaving twenty-five thousand defenders to the city. Admiral Korniloff and his able assistant, Colonel Von Todleben, undertook to strengthen the defenses and to inspire the troops. On October 17, the siege guns of the allies were in position. The English stormed the suburbs of the city, the Malakoff and the Redan; the French stormed the city. Both were unsuccessful. Russian troops poured into Sebastopol, and invited battle outside of the fortifications. At the harbor of Balaklava, Turkish troops recoiled from the Russian advance, and Sir Colin Campbell, with the Highland Brigade, saved the shipping and stores by timely check to the Russians. The battle of Balaklava, October 25, gave the town to the British after stubborn fighting, more than two thirds of the Light Brigade having been sacrificed to Lord Lucan’s misconstruction of orders.

At Inkerman, on November 5, sixty thousand Russians, in fog and rain, surprised the British Household Guards, and for six hours vainly strove to crush them. General Bosquet, with the genius of the soldier, guessed the point of severest attack, and sent reinforcements to the Guards. The Russians were finally driven back. Little good resulted from these two stubborn battles. Winter put an end to active operations. Rain, hurricanes, insufficient shelter, lack of supplies, and extreme cold produced fearful misery among the soldiers. Russia suffered as severely as did the allies, besides having had her fleet on the Black Sea destroyed and her army beaten.

In April, 1855, the bombardment began again. In May the allies captured Kertch and Yenikale, thus cutting off Russian supplies from the Caucasian provinces. In June, Marshal Pelissier succeeded Canrobert and successfully stormed Manelon; and, after the abortive attacks, June 18, of the French on the Malakoff and the English on the Redan, General Simpson succeeded Lord Raglan. August 16, the Russians crossed Tchernaya, but were repulsed by the French. On September 8 the French carried the Malakoff; the British failed to carry the Redan. The Russians set fire to the city and ships and retired to the northern part of the harbor, where they held strongly intrenched positions opposite the allied armies and beyond the reach of the allied fleets. Russia was driven from the Black Sea, had lost her prestige in the Baltic Sea, Bomarsund, on the Aland islands, and the arsenal of Sweaborg, in the Gulf of Finland. She had saved Cronstadt, and, at terrible sacrifice, had captured Kars from the English General Williams with his army of Turks. Her vast territory was comparatively intact. The nations were not satisfied. The Peace of Paris increased the prestige of Louis Napoleon; it postponed the Eastern Question by putting the Christian subjects under the nominal protection of the Powers, but virtually under that of the Sultan. The treaty of peace was signed March 30, 1856.

Wars in the East.—In 1857, the Indian Mutiny was caused by the introduction of Enfield rifles. Delhi was taken after desperate fighting, September 20. Cawnpore and Lucknow were the theatre of horrible scenes. The rebellion was finally crushed in 1859.

In the meantime war with Persia was begun and ended by the recapture of Herat, in Afghanistan. In December, 1857, England and France made war on China and captured Canton. They secured many concessions by the Treaty of Tien Tsin, and $2,000,000 indemnity.

War between Austria, France, and Sardinia.—In 1859, Louis Napoleon made a secret alliance with Italy. General disarmament was proposed. Sardinia agreed to it; Austria stood aloof. On April 25, 1859, Austria ordered the disarmament of Piedmont. On the 27th, King Victor Emmanuel proclaimed war. On the 30th, French troops were in Turin. On May 13, Louis Napoleon himself disembarked at Genoa, where he was met by Victor Emmanuel. The Austrian forces crossed the Ticino, en route for Milan, but hesitated, because of the French advance. The opening battles at Montebello and Balestro, May 20, 30, and 31, were favorable to the allies.

CAPTURE OF THE MALAKOFF.

At Magenta, June 4, the Austrians met with terrible defeat. The forces of the allies numbered 55,000, and their loss was 4000; the Austrian army of 75,000 lost 10,000 killed and wounded and 7000 prisoners. The conquerors entered Milan on June 8. Francis Joseph fell back to the line of the Mincio, and at Solferino the decisive battle of the campaign was fought on June 24. Napoleon commanded the allied armies, which numbered about 150,000; they fought for sixteen hours against the Austrian force of 170,000, gaining a fearful victory. This battle cost Austria 20,000 men; the French lost in killed and wounded 12,000 and the Sardinians 5000 men.

The allies crossed the Mincio and laid siege to Peschiera, but while all Europe expected another fight, an armistice of five weeks was agreed to, and Napoleon, unknown to his ally, met Francis at Villafranca and made a peace, upon which was based the Treaty of Zurich, signed November 10. Austria gave Lombardy to Napoleon for the king of Sardinia, as also the fortresses of Mantua and Peschiera. Italy was to become a confederation, with the Pope as president, of which Austria was to be a member, because of her holdings in Venetia. Tuscany and Modena were to be restored to their princes. Garibaldi’s brilliant conquest of Sicily and Naples, in 1860, and Sardinia’s growing power, startled Europe, but the nations dared not interfere. The general parliament of Italy met in 1861, at Turin, and made Victor Emmanuel king of Italy. Rome, under the Pope, and Venetia, under Austria, were as yet dismembered from “Young Italy.”

War with Denmark.—Christian IX. succeeded to the throne of Denmark November 15, 1863. He endeavored to incorporate Schleswig with Denmark; the German population repudiated him and appealed to the Confederacy. The Diet sent troops into Holstein. Bismarck induced Austria to join Prussia in setting aside the London treaty of 1853, and the allied troops forced the Danes back to the intrenchments of Duppel. The capture of Duppel by the Prussians, April 18, proved the efficiency of needle guns and rifled cannon. June 22, the allies crossed the channel to the Island of Alsen and, on the 28th, captured the Danish stronghold Dennewerke, hitherto considered impregnable. The Treaty of Vienna, October 30, 1864, closed the war. Prussia and Austria together were to control the duchies.

The Seven Weeks’ War.—The arrangement between Prussia and Austria respecting the Danish duchies caused the “Seven Weeks’ War” of 1866. Bismarck induced Victor Emmanuel to form an alliance against Austria, March 27. The Prussians, on June 7, without a blow forced the Austrians to retire from Holstein, ignoring the protest of the Federal Diet. Austria was not prepared for war. Her army, together with that of Saxony, amounted to two hundred and seventy-one thousand. With Prussia, fully equipped and on a war footing with three armies, besides the reserves, the grand total estimated at three hundred thousand, the result was a foregone conclusion. Prussia declared war, June 15, 1866, against Hanover, Hesse, and Saxony, and next day threw her armies into the hostile states. On the 17th Francis Joseph published his war manifesto. Italy declared war, on the 20th, against Austria and Bavaria. In fourteen days Prussia’s immense army was mobilized. In five days the northern states to the Main were disarmed, and the Saxon army was forced to retreat toward Bohemia.

BATTLE OF MAGENTA.

General Benedek was commander of the Austrians. Upon news of Prussian victories, he advised Francis Joseph to make terms of peace with William. Prussia fought for German unification; Austria to protect her pride. It was supposed the Austrians would first enter Saxony and dispute the Prussian advance, but Bismarck had determined the war should be brief, for Prussia was now master of the situation. On June 23, the Prussian army marched from three points towards Josephstadt, where Benedek was preparing to fight. On the 27th the Austrians were driven back at Soor, next day at Skalitz, and on the 29th at Gitschen. Archduke Leopold, on the 28th, and Count Clam Gallas, at Gitschen, both attacked the enemy in disobedience of orders, and thus forced Benedek to fall back from his strongest position towards Königgratz. The Austrians were also defeated, on the 28th, at Königinhof and Schweinschadel, and their loss by this time numbered over thirty-five thousand. Benedek asked permission to retreat into Moravia and await reinforcements, but news of the Austrian victory over the Italians at Custozza reached Vienna, and immediately battle was enjoined upon Benedek. Benedek placed five hundred guns in position, spanning a league between the Elbe and Bistritz.

On July 2, the king of Prussia assumed command of the Prussian hosts and ordered attack for the next day. The Crown Prince, several miles away with his army, received orders at four o’clock in the morning of the 3d to advance his Silesian army from Königinhof. At eight o’clock, Prince Frederick Charles, with a hundred thousand, attacked the Austrian centre lying against Sadowa. General Herwarth, with four hundred thousand men, attacked the Austrian right. The whole Austrian army was hurled against these two commands for five hours. Prince Frederick Charles forced passage through the Bistritz and took Sadowa, but could not take the heights. At one o’clock retreat was being considered, but the Crown Prince coming up with his troops the heights were taken at four o’clock. The fighting on both sides in this battle was determined and heroic. The Prussian loss was over ten thousand, and the Austrians lost twenty-seven thousand killed and wounded, nineteen thousand prisoners, with 174 cannon and 11 colors. At Lissa, on July 20, the Austrian navy destroyed the Italian fleet. July 22, an armistice of four weeks was granted. The Peace of Prague was concluded August 23. Her defeat cost Austria Venetia and the quadrilateral, namely, the fortresses of Peschiera, Mantua, Verona, and Legnano, deprived her of any part in Germany or German affairs, and Holstein and Schleswig, and obliged her to pay 40,000,000 thalers, one half of which she was to retain in lieu of the duchies.

Austria emerged from the “Seven Weeks’ War” with her ideas somewhat liberalized, and though her territory was diminished her progress and prosperity increased. The dual-Austro-Hungarian empire was formed by Francis Joseph, he ruling at Vienna as Emperor of Austria and at Buda Pesth as king of Hungary. This war also ended the Germanic confederation of 1815, and the North German Confederation under Prussia arose.

At the peace of Vienna, October 3, Austria recognized the kingdom of Italy, and with the acquisition of Venetia and the quadrilateral fortresses the “Seven Weeks’ War” had greatly helped on the cause of “United Italy.”

In April, 1864, Louis Napoleon sent an army of twenty-five thousand to sustain the Austrian Archduke Maximilian on the throne of Mexico. At that time the United States was occupied with the Civil War. This ended, Napoleon was summarily required to withdraw his forces from the American continent, which he did. Maximilian was thus left to his fate, and, after being condemned by court martial, was shot at Querétaro, June 19, 1867.

The Franco-Prussian War.—Prince Leopold, of Hohenzollern, was offered the throne of Spain after Isabella had fled from Madrid. Leopold declined, but Napoleon demanded that the Emperor William should guarantee never to permit Leopold to accept. William refused to accede to the demand, and Napoleon, urged by the war party, declared war July 19, 1870. On the same day the Confederation placed its forces in the hands of William, as did the South Germans. This spontaneous uprising of all Germany was unlooked for. Napoleon’s army numbered three hundred and ten thousand men. In ten days William had nearly half a million soldiers ready to march against the enemy. August 2, the first fight took place at Saarbrücken, a little town over the German frontier. Napoleon and the young Prince Imperial were present, and the force of Uhlans was driven back. August 4, the Crown Prince of Prussia drove the right wing of MacMahon’s army back at Weissenburg, and on the 6th, again was MacMahon defeated at Wörth. The Germans, having separated MacMahon’s army, advanced into Alsace. In the meantime General Steinmetz carried Spicheren by storm, and the whole German army went forward. Together with the Crown Prince, Steinmetz, on the 14th of August, defeated Marshal Bazaine, at Courcelles, who retreated to Metz, and then endeavored to push on with his hundred thousand men to Chalons. Von Moltke hurried on the Crown Prince to intercept Bazaine, and at Mars la Tour was fought the fiercest battle, so far, of the war. On either side the losses amounted to seventeen thousand. Gravelotte was fought, on August 18, between the armies of Steinmetz and the Crown Prince, King William commanding in person. The battle lasted all day between two hundred thousand Germans and one hundred and eighty thousand French. The Germans lost twenty thousand men, and succeeded in forcing Bazaine into Metz. Although, in one sort, an undecisive battle, Gravelotte perhaps settled the fate of the Empire. MacMahon’s plan was, with his one hundred and twenty-five thousand men reorganized at Chalons, to prevent the German advance on Paris. He was overruled and sent to the relief of Bazaine. Defeated in several small fights, MacMahon was obliged to fall back on Sedan. The heights and ridges above Sedan once occupied by hostile troops, surrender or annihilation was the outcome. MacMahon was wounded, then Ducrot, and the command fell to Wimpffen. Sedan was forced to surrender, September 1, and Napoleon himself gave his sword to King William. Paris was maddened. The Empress escaped to England. Napoleon was taken to the castle of Wilhelmshöhe.

A month had hardly passed since the outbreak of the war, and one of the two great French armies with the Emperor had been captured; the other was besieged in Metz. Gambetta and other prominent men in Paris set up the government of the national defense. A republic was proclaimed. The defense of Paris was zealously undertaken. Large supplies of provisions were gathered. Fortifications were strengthened. The siege began September 19, 1870, and ended January 28, 1871. The direst famine attended it. Gambetta left Paris in a balloon, and at Tours succeeded in forming the army of the Loire and the army of the North. Both were defeated. Strasbourg was captured, and Metz surrendered with a hundred and seventy-three thousand men, among them three marshals of France. The entire German loss in this war was 129,700 men.

January 17, 1871, Thiers was elected President of the Third Republic. Knowing the impossibility of further resistance, with half a million German soldiers, flushed and inspired by constant success, on the soil of France, and Paris in their anaconda coils, he counseled that peace be asked. Thiers, Favre, and Picard negotiated with William and Bismarck. An armistice of twenty days was permitted, that the National Convention then at Bordeaux might ratify terms. In the meantime the house of Hohenzollern reached the summit of its gratified ambition, when, on March 18, William was crowned at Versailles, Emperor of Germany. The cession of Alsace and Lorraine, and $1,000,000,000 indemnity, was the price of peace.

No patriot name in all history deserves more reverence than that of Louis Adolphe Thiers. Upon him devolved the task of making peace with the German foe, of quelling the civil war, and of so managing the finances of France, that her people within two years were enabled, to the astonishment of the world, to pay the enormous indemnity extorted by the Germans, and, by September, 1873, the last franc was paid and the last German sentinel removed from the soil of France.

The civil war between the Republic and the Commune settled the question once for all, that Paris, accountable for all the errors and vicissitudes of the country, is not France, and there is every reason to hope that out of the unequaled horrors of those awful days of carnage the republican government of France arose to remain in perpetuity.

Garibaldi, taking advantage of the fall of Louis Napoleon, and caring not for the king’s promises, took possession with his troops of the city of Rome, September 20, 1870, and on July 2 of the next year Victor Emmanuel erected his throne in the Quirinal.

Turco-Russian War.—In 1875, the Bosnians, Turkish subjects, revolted. They maintained their struggle, and the enraged Turks sent Mohammedan troops among the defenseless Bulgarians, destroying unnumbered thousands of men, women, and children. Czar Alexander declared war April 1, 1877. His army crossed the Balkans and occupied Shipka Pass. Osman Pasha developed unexpected military genius and skill. For five months he checked the onward march of the Russians and won world-wide admiration by his defense of Plevna. By the first of December Plevna was invested completely by the Russians. Driven back whenever attempting to make a sortie, starvation compelled Osman to surrender with forty-four thousand troops. Adrianople was occupied. The Treaty of San Stefano was wrested in sight of Constantinople. It greatly reduced Turkish power in Europe, and constituted Russia heir to Turkey in Europe. Bulgaria was to be protected by fifty thousand Russian troops for two years and to have a Christian governor.

Three months later, England formed a secret treaty with Turkey, securing Cyprus and agreeing to protect Turkey in Asia. Austria, too, was dissatisfied, and the treaty of Berlin was made in 1878, to rectify the balances of the nations. Russia was by this treaty damaged in prestige and, shorn of triumphs, was given only Asiatic provinces. Turkey was stripped of all real power in Europe.

LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS.

Chino-Japanese War.—In Japan’s declaration of war against China, August 1, 1894, she set forth succinctly the provocation forcing her to this action. She said that Korea had been brought into the notice of the nations of the world by her efforts; that China constantly had interfered with Korea’s government, insistently posing as her suzerain; that when an insurrection in Korea broke out China sent troops into Korea, and that when Japan, under the treaty of 1885, also sent troops to assist Korea to quell the rebels, asking China’s coöperation in the effort, China refused her rightful demand; that China’s course tended to keep up the trouble indefinitely, so that the only course left for Japan was to declare war.

As with Germany a score of years previously, when the time came Japan was ready, not only with munitions of war, but with better topographical knowledge of the enemy’s country than they themselves possessed. The Emperor, whose dynasty antedates the Christian era, gave his people a constitution, and stretching his hand towards Korea he helped her in the same direction. He had Japan’s army and her navy drilled by expert European officers. Arsenals and extensive manufactories for the implements of war were started, with European superintendents. The latest and best of ships were both bought at foreign marts and made at home. Her students were to be found in the universities of the world. Her agents were sent to study in their capitals the economy of every government and the machinery of their executive departments. To find the best and assimilate it seemed the principle of her progression, so that both in military skill and the knowledge of diplomacy she acquired the ability to hold her place among the nations of the civilized world. A war alone was needed to prove that this was a fact.

Japan’s navy consisted of four armored cruisers and eight vessels of 3000 tons each. This was a much lighter fleet than that of China, but swifter. China’s navy had been trained by an able English naval chief, Captain Lang. Her outfit of ships was, perhaps, superior to that of Japan, consisting of five armored vessels, nine protected cruisers, and torpedo boats besides. The principal battle of this Chino-Japanese war was fought on September 15 at Ping Yang, an old capital of Korea, situated at the meeting of several roads. The Japanese landed troops at Gensan, on the northeast, and at Hwang-jo, on the northwest, coast of Korea. These formed the right and left wings of the army whose centre, under General Nodju, advanced from Seoul, about one hundred miles to the south, of which the Japanese were already in possession. Only one wing of the army met opposition in its march, a small battle having been fought. The forces, so far as we can learn, were between twenty and thirty thousand of Chinese and between thirty and forty thousand of Japanese. Japan’s twenty-four years of scientific preparation, her study of the art of war, the practicability of her strategic movements,—admired by the soldiers of the world,—left China, with her old semi-barbarian methods, no chance for victory.

The battle was a bloody one; the defeated Chinese fled until they were on the other side of the Yalu River, in Manchooria. Seven hundred (some accounts say fourteen thousand) Chinese were captured, two thousand killed and wounded. The army continued fighting and conquering until practically the province of Manchooria was in Japan’s possession, as well as the peninsula of Liaotung, terminating with Port Arthur.

The battle of Yalu, or Hai Yun Tao, afforded the first practical test of modern vessels, guns, and projectiles in Asiatic waters. Ping Yang has been called China’s Sedan, and Yalu, Japan’s Trafalgar. Japan had nine cruisers and two converted cruisers wherewith to fight twelve Chinese warships and four torpedo boats. It is said that Japan used melanite shells. The fleet of Chinese warships, convoying transports with ten thousand troops, entered the Yalu River. The next day, September 17, the Japanese fleet, under Admiral Ito, went out to meet them. A European officer on a Chinese vessel says: “Passing along the Chinese line, the Japanese poured as heavy a fire as they could bring to bear upon each ship in succession, and, while they had sea-room, circled round their opponents. The Japanese state that no Japanese war-ship was lost and only three seriously injured.” A Chinese officer says: “As soon as the Chinese on the port side had brought their guns to bear and had obtained range accurately, the Japanese would work around and attack the starboard side.” Four ships were destroyed and two badly injured. One of the Chinese ships was said to have been hit two hundred times. The Chinese ironclads that escaped were later sunk off Wei Hai Wei. Port Arthur, captured October 21, was filled to overflowing with ammunition, grain, and other supplies.

China made three informal overtures for peace. Finally, Li Hung Chang went from Tientsin to Shimonoseki, to make terms, on the 19th of March, 1895. By the treaty there made, May 17, China recognized the independence and autonomy of Korea, ceded certain territory in Manchooria, all the islands in the eastern part of the bay of Liaotung and the northern part of the Yellow Sea, Formosa, and all islands belonging to it, and the Pescadores group. Two hundred million Kuping taels were exacted as indemnity, to be paid in eight installments, one every six months. The inhabitants were to sell out and leave, or in two years to be Japanese subjects. Russia, Germany, and France recommended that Japan should not permanently possess the peninsula of Feng Tan, and Japan agreed to their suggestions.

CAVALRY CHARGE AT GRAVELOTTE. (A. DE NEUVILLE.)

BATTLE OF YALU RIVER.

Formosa, as a strategetical post, is of the greatest value. Korea and Japan now control absolutely the Japan Sea. It was only after four months of fighting that Japan completely conquered the Formosans and had all her new possessions under her control.

China paid Japan an additional $30,000,000 for the release of Port Arthur and Liaotung peninsula. China was well pleased. But in April, 1897, Russia herself had obtained possession of Port Arthur and Talien Wan, and in December the Germans received Kaio Chao, the finest naval station of the province of Shantung. France subsequently obtained Kwang-Chau, the best port of Wangsi; and England, though not joining these powers in the demand in favor of China in 1895, obtained Wei Hai Wei in 1897.

Greco-Turkish War.—In 1895, the fearful atrocities committed by the “unspeakable” Turk began to assume appalling proportions. During three years one hundred thousand Cretans were murdered. February 8, 1897, the Cretans proclaimed union with Greece. The Greeks, unable longer to endure the sufferings of their kindred, determined to help them.

Prince George left for Crete with a torpedo flotilla February 10; Colonel Vassos, aide-de-camp to the king, followed with fifteen hundred men and two batteries on the 13th. Prince Nicholas led a regiment of artillery to the Thessalian frontiers. The powers sent a collective note of protest to Greece, but it was not heeded. Colonel Vassos landed in Crete on the 14th. Sailors from the fleet of the powers occupied the coast towns of Crete. Pasha Berovitch resigned and returned to Constantinople. Greek reserves rallied promptly. Volunteers offered. Colonel Vassos established headquarters in the mountainous interior at Sphakia.

March 18, the powers blockaded Crete. On the 27th, Crown Prince Constantine proceeded to the Turkish frontier. On April 5, the powers declared no gain should accrue to the combatant who approached Thessalian borders. April 8, three thousand Greeks crossed near Krania, began fighting, and were driven back. On April 17 Turkey declared war. On the 18th, a battle of twenty-four hours, in Milouna Pass, crowned Turkish arms with victory. Another hard fought battle, at Reveni, discomfited the Greeks. Greeks passed the Arta River and Greek ironclads bombarded Prevessa. On the 19th, the Turks were in Thessaly and the Greeks in retreat to Larissa. After terrific battles Tornavo and Larissa, on the 25th, fell into the hands of the Turks. Colonel Smolenski fought desperately at Valestino, but had to yield; and Volo also fell to the Turks. The Turks occupied Pharsaos on May 6. Greece asked the powers for peace, May 8; Cretan autonomy was agreed to, and Turkey permitted armistice on the 15th. The war closed. Turkey was forced to yield all Thessalian territory, and Crete was relieved of Turkish oppression. Greece was forced to withdraw all support from Crete and pay $20,000,000 indemnity.

The remarkable feature of this war was the intensely hard fighting from start to close, and the disposition of the powers to assist Turkey by interfering with the Grecian navy. Frequently the Austrians helped the Turks by placing their guns in position. It was only when the Sultan conquered Thessaly and threatened to keep it that the powers interposed.

The crime committed by the powers against civilization and Christianity by their action seems incredible, even though the peace of Europe was thereby secured.

England’s Wars in the Soudan.—The Khedive of Egypt had obtained great loans from Europe. England and France took financial control of the country. Arabi Pasha inaugurated a rebellion and fortified Alexandria. Many Europeans were murdered, and England bombarded the city, taking possession July 12, 1882. General Wolseley, at Tel el Kebir, September 13, fought and defeated Arabi, who fled leaving two thousand dead. France withdrew from the financial arrangement. The English remained to put the Egyptians in condition for self-government. England has remained ever since.

Mohammed Ahmed arose in the Soudan, proclaiming himself El Mahdi, the Mussulman Messiah. The barbarian hordes flocked to his banner. He defeated the Egyptians in four engagements, October, 1883. The Anglo-Egyptian force of ten thousand men, under General Hicks, was destroyed, only two escaping. General Gordon was sent to the relief of the Egyptian army. He reached Khartoum, February 18, 1884. The Mahdists besieged the city. Gordon sent for reinforcements. England was so slow in sending them that they arrived two days too late. Khartoum was captured through treachery, and Gordon, the most beloved of English soldiers for his saintly and heroic character, was put to death on January 27, 1885.

General Sir Horatio Herbert Kitchener was made Sirdar in 1890. He started from Cairo with one thousand British and fifteen thousand Egyptians, black and fellah troops, building a road across the desert as he advanced, and engineering his gunboats up the Nile. The distance from his base, at Cairo, to his first storehouse, at Wady Halfa, is eight hundred miles. April 8, 1898, was fought the battle of Atbara, a fort at the point where the Atbara River enters the Nile. Here Mahmud, the commander of the barbarians, was captured and his army of twelve thousand infantry destroyed. Osman Digna got away with the greater part of the cavalry, numbering four thousand.

The force was about a month reaching Wady Hamed, and, September 1, was in sight of Omdurman. The Sirdar’s line was drawn up in crescent form, with Omdurman and Khartoum for its centre. In this position was fought the first battle of Egeda, in which twenty-two thousand of the Dervishes fell. The Khalifa and Osman Digna fled with a scant handful of followers, and are now said to be bandits in the Kordofan. The number of the annihilated army of the Mahdists will never be known. The British loss of whites was less than two hundred, and the native loss less than three hundred. The fire of the barbarians was generally too high to effect great injury. September 2 will be a marked day in England’s calendar. The Sirdar marched into Khartoum, the Union Jack was raised, and beneath its floating crosses his chaplains performed Gordon’s funeral ceremonies on the spot where he was slain nearly fourteen years before.

The Boer War.—By the treaty of 1881 Great Britain claimed suzerainty over the South African (Transvaal) Republic and Orange Free State. These Republics claimed that by the treaty of 1884 Great Britain gave up her claim of suzerainty. Here arose an issue which was aggravated by the discovery of diamonds at Kimberley and of gold at Johannesburg, followed by the Jameson raid, which, shorn of its disguise, was notice to the Boers that Great Britain desired and designed to occupy and absorb their two Republics. The diplomatic war went on for years between President Kruger, of the Transvaal, and Mr. Chamberlain, Great Britain’s Colonial Secretary. It culminated in an ultimatum on the part of Kruger, on October 9, 1899, which Chamberlain rejected. Both sides had been preparing for this, and on October 11, the outbreak of the war, Great Britain had already an army of 25,000 men in South Africa, while the Boers had mobilized an equal, if not superior, army of effectives. The Boers immediately invaded Natal and Cape Colony, shutting up General White and his army in Ladysmith, and Colonel Powell and his forces in Mafeking. Kimberley was also besieged. The initial battles were numerous, fierce, and generally favorable to the Boers. Great Britain’s eyes were speedily opened to the gravity of the situation. She hurried large reinforcements to the scene till her armies far outnumbered those of the Boers. Yet her best generals, as Buller at Tugela River, and Methuen, at Magersfontein, continued to meet with disastrous defeats. Lord Roberts, in connection with General Kitchener, was sent, January 10, 1900, to supersede the blundering generals, and to organize a new campaign. It was seen that direct battle against the Boers was bound to end in defeat. So Roberts was provided with an overwhelming army, estimated at 225,000, and he at once entered upon a war of strategy. His northward advance was general along his lines, thus keeping the Boers divided. He flanked them out of their strongholds. By February he had invaded the Orange Free State, and raised the siege of Kimberley. On February 27 he captured General Cronje and his force of 4000 men, and on March 13 took possession of Bloemfontein, the Free State capital, whence he issued a proclamation annexing the republic under the name of Orange River Colony. On February 28 the siege of Ladysmith was raised, and shortly after that of Mafeking. The Boers continued to fight doggedly, all the while inflicting heavy losses on their enemy, but resistance was futile against such overwhelming odds. They were gradually forced from one position to another in the direction of Pretoria, the Transvaal capital. On March 5 Presidents Kruger and Steyn joined in peace proposals, which were rejected. On March 12 they made an appeal to the nations for mediation. All refused to mediate. On March 27 the Boers lost their ablest general in the person of General Joubert, who died at Pretoria. By May 12 Kroonstad, the second Free State capital, had fallen into Lord Roberts’ hands. The Vaal River was then crossed and the Transvaal invaded. On May 31 the British army entered the important town of Johannesburg, and hastened toward Pretoria, which was captured on June 5, 1900. President Kruger and General Botha had left a few days before, the former in the direction of the Portuguese port of Lorenzo Marques, the latter with the remnant of the Boer army to the mountains beyond Pretoria. On September 3 Lord Roberts declared the Transvaal annexed to Great Britain under the name of the Vaal River Colony. Generals Botha and De Wet continued a guerrilla warfare far past the end of the century. President Kruger accepted the protection of Holland, and sailed thither on October 20, 1900. Lord Roberts arrived in England in December, 1900, to receive his honors. At the turn of the century the South African problem was a most wearying one for Great Britain.