a; where it was impossible
to follow them.

This gallant and comparatively bloodless raising of the Galveston
blockade was a gleam of hopeful light; especially as it was almost
coincident with the first approach to a naval success, by the force of
Commodore Ingraham in Charleston Harbor on the 30th of January. The
vessels under his command were ill-built, awkward tubs--as will
hereafter be seen; but the terrible Brooke gun did its work at long
range, and drove the wooden blockading fleet from the harbor for the
moment.

This victory, unimportant as it was--for the blockade it claimed to
raise was renewed and strengthened within a few days--was cheering;
for, said the people, if the Confederates can succeed on the water,
surely the star of the South is not really on the wane.

But there was, after the New Year, a sudden stoppage of active
movements on both sides. The terrific crash of hostile cannon--the
continuous roar of opposing small arms--and the groan of the Federal
mixed with the death-cry of the Confederate, were all suddenly stilled.
The fearful tornado of war that had swept for many months the
once-smiling Southland--leaving its wake only the blackened track of
ruin piled thick with stiffened corpses!--was suddenly hushed; as
though the evil powers that had raised it must pause to gather fresh
strength, before once more driving it in a fiercer and deadlier blast.

In the West, we had lost in the early year the strong position of
Arkansas Post with its large accumulation of stores and its garrison of
over 3,000 men; but the Queen City still sat defiant and unharmed, the
hostile fleet and army having left its fruitless task; and the twin
stronghold of Port Hudson showed another row of ugly teeth, into range
of which no Federal force seemed yet ready to venture.

On the Atlantic seaboard, too, the prospects, at this time, appeared
more cheering. Girt as it was, with one unbroken line of watchful
cruisers, with every port apparently sealed by blockade--southern
ingenuity and pluck still defied them and ran in precious stores of
arms, clothing and medicines. General Beauregard had taken active
command of South Carolina and Georgia; and had put the defenses of both
coasts--especially of Charleston and Savannah--into such a state of
fitness as quite satisfied the Government and made the people of those
states calm and confident in his ability to protect them and theirs.
General Gustavus W. Smith--the friend and