of soldiers was sent to help him.

[Illustration: A RIVER GUNBOAT.]

[Sidenote: Capture of New Orleans, April, 1862. _Higginson_, 303-304;
_Source-Book_, 313-315.]

399. New Orleans captured, April, 1862.--Farragut carried his fleet
into the Mississippi, but found his way upstream barred by two forts on
the river's bank. A great chain stretched across the river below the
forts, and a fleet of river gunboats with an ironclad or two was in
waiting above the forts. Chain, forts, and gunboats all gave way before
Farragut's forceful will. At night he passed the forts amid a terrific
cannonade. Once above them New Orleans was at his mercy. It surrendered,
and with the forts was soon occupied by the Union army. The lower
Mississippi was lost to the Confederacy.

[Illustration: A WAR-TIME ENVELOPE.]

[Sidenote: Shiloh, April, 1862.]

[Sidenote: Corinth, May, 1862.]

400. Shiloh and Corinth, April, May, 1862.--General Halleck now
directed the operations of the Union armies in the West. He ordered
Grant to take his men up the Tennessee to Pittsburg Landing and there
await the arrival of Buell with a strong force overland from Nashville.
Grant encamped with his troops on the western bank of the Tennessee
between Shiloh Church and Pittsburg Landing. Albert Sidney Johnston, the
Confederate commander in the West, attacked him suddenly and with great
fury. Soon the Union army was pushed back to the river. In his place
many a leader would have withdrawn. But Grant, with amazing courage,
held on. In the afternoon Buell's leading regiments reached the other
side of the river. In the night they were ferried across, and Grant's
outlying commands were brought to the front. The next morning Grant
attacked in his turn and slowly but surely pushed the Confederates off
the field. Halleck then united Grant's, Buell's, and Pope's armies and
captured Corinth.

[Sidenote: General Bragg invades Kentucky.]

[Sidenote: Battle of Perryville, October, 1862.]

[Sidenote: Murfreesboro', December, 1862. _Eggleston_, 331.]

401. Bragg in Tennessee and Kentucky.--General Braxton Bragg now
took a large part of the Confederate army, which had fought at Shiloh
and Corinth, to Chattanooga. He then marched rapidly across Tennessee
and Kentucky to the neighborhood of Louisville on the Ohio River. Buell
was sent after him, and the two armies fought an indecisive battle at
Perryville. Then Bragg retreated to Chattanooga. In a few months he was
again o