ssued by which all slaves in the United
States became free; and, although thirty-one years have passed at this
writing, they are still dropping in occasionally from the back districts
to inquire about the truth of the report.

CHAPTER XXVII.

STILL MORE FRATERNAL BLOODSHED, ON PRINCIPLE.--OUTING FEATURES
DISAPPEAR, AND GIVE PLACE TO STRAINED RELATIONS BETWEEN COMBATANTS, WHO
BEGIN TO MIX THINGS.

On December 13 the year's business closed with the battle of
Fredericksburg, under the management of General Burnside. Twelve
thousand Union troops were killed before night mercifully shut down upon
the slaughter.

The Confederates were protected by stone walls and situated upon a
commanding height, from which they were able to shoot down the Yankees
with perfect sang-froid and deliberation.

In the midst of all these discouragements, the red brother fetched loose
in Minnesota, Iowa, and Dakota, and massacred seven hundred men, women,
and children. The outbreak was under the management of Little Crow, and
was confined to the Sioux Nation. Thirty-nine of these Indians were
hanged on the same scaffold at Mankato, Minnesota, as a result of this
wholesale murder.

This execution constitutes one of the green spots in the author's
memory. In all lives now and then an oasis is liable to fall. This was
oasis enough to last the writer for years.

In 1863 the Federal army numbered about seven hundred thousand men, and
the Confederates about three hundred and fifty thousand. Still it took
two more years to close the war.

It is held now by good judges that the war was prolonged by the jealousy
existing between Union commanders who wanted to be President or
something else, and that it took so much time for the generals to keep
their eyes on caucuses and county papers at home that they fought best
when surprised and attacked by the foe.

General Grant moved again on Vicksburg, and on May 1, defeated Pemberton
at Fort Gibson. He also prevented a junction between Joseph E. Johnston
and Pemberton, and drove the latter into Vicksburg, securing the stopper
so tightly that after forty-seven days the garrison surrendered, July 4.
This fight cost the Confederates thirty-seven thousand prisoners, ten
thousand killed and wounded, and immense quantities of stores. It was a
warm time in Vicksburg; a curious man who stuck his hat out for twenty
seconds above the ramparts found fifteen bullet-holes in it when he took
it down, and when