The Governor of the State, Henry M. Rector, on the 22d of April, 1861, directed the seizure by State troops of the United States stores at Napoleon; followed on the 24th by the capture of Fort Smith by the forces under Colonel Borland.

The Legislature being convened at Little Rock, an unconditional ordinance of Secession was passed on the 6th of May, and on the 18th the Confederate Congress at Richmond declared the admission of Arkansas to the Southern Confederacy.

It was the misfortune of the loyal men of the State that they did not number in their ranks any citizens of power and influence, who had energy sufficient to organize the Unionists, and oppose a barrier to the acts of the enemies of the Federal Government. Unarmed and unorganized, while the conspirators were in a state of preparation for any resistance that might be made, protest and opposition were of no avail, and the loyal men of the State were compelled to submit, and endure the persecutions and depredations of the more numerous secessonists.

A great deal of excitement was occasioned during the month of November by the discovery that the Union men of Izard, Fulton, Independent and Searcey counties had secret organizations and societies for mutual protection and co-operation. This accidental disclosure exasperated the conspirators, who adopted the most violent measures to dis perse the Unionists, and break up their associations. Many were taken to Little Rock and hanged, while others were arrested in the woods, attempting to escape beyond the State, and shared the same fate. Large numbers of refugees, however, succeeded in reaching Missouri, where they remained, and subsequently, under Captain Ware, a member of the Arkansas Legislature, organized as a military body at Rolla, Missouri, and entered the service under General Curtis, receiving large accessions on the marching of Curtis' expedition into the State.

Impressed with the importance of securing the services of the Indian tribes within the limits of Arkansas, as well as the adjoining territory, the agents of the Richmond government were instructed to negotiate with the Cherokees and Creeks on the borders of Arkansas, promising the payment of the United States annuities by the Confederacy in case of their allegiance. On the 24th of August an agreement was entered into by some of the Cherokee chiefs, and the two tribes raised 2,000 men for the war. The nations were divided on the question, the most intelligent being convinced that loyalty to the Federal Government was their true policy not less than their duty. The Choctaws, Chickasaws, and other tribes were treated in a similar manner, and with the same results-secession having the effect of dividing the Red Men of the forest as it had divided the pale faces of the east.

From authentic sources it was learned from

e Seminole agency

that Opothleyoholo, a loyal chief, had collected together four or five thousand Indians, and about thirteen hundred negroes, who had gone to him with the hope of being rendered free. When General Cooper (rebel,) at the head of the Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw regiments, with other Indians, amounting to near five thousand, advanced upon Opothleyoholo's camp, his followers fled, leaving all behind. Opothleyoholo left with a few adherents for the south-west. Most of his followers were reported to be with Colonel Cooper, who was said to have a very large Indian force with him.

BOMBARDMENT AT FORT PICKENS.

On the 1st of January, 1862, Fort Pickens with the rebel forts and batteries on the Bay of Pensacola again awoke the thunders of their heavy artillery, whose tremendous explosions. reverberated for thirty miles along the Florida coast.

The loyal garrison at the fort had been long chafing under the restraints of continued inaction. The commander, Colonel Harvey Brown, Fifth United States Artillery, had been anxiously awaiting the time when a sufficient force would be at his command to drive the unwelcome foe from his position near the fort.

Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, of Pennsylvania, of the First United States Artillery, the former brave commander, who saved the fort by his courage and loyalty, on the 12th of January, 1861, had been relieved, on account of ill-health. He received a Major's commission in the Sixteenth United States Infantry, May 14th, 1861.

On the first day of the year a small steamer was seen from Fort Pickens making her way toward the Navy Yard. She was a saucy, defiant looking craft, and some one on board waved a secession flag ostentatiously in sight, as if challenging a fire. This was an exasperating insult to the restive men shut up in the fort. Colonel Brown had fre quently warned General Bragg against forcing the presence of these insolent steamers upon him, and when this presumptuous little craft approached Fort Pickens, with its flag in commotion, he opened fire upon her. She drew in her flag and retreated instantly with a crestfallen, retrogade movement, in amusing contrast with her first approach. The fire from Fort Pickens was directly answered by all the rebel batteries, and in a brief time the engagement became general. The firing on both sides was kept up through the entire day, and at night Pickens maintained a slow fire from her thirteen-inch mortars, which was promptly returned by the rebels.

About midnight a conflagration broke out in the Navy Yard. It

flamed up furiously, consuming the buildings of the Yard, and spreading to the town of Woolsey, adjoining the Navy Yard on the north, where it raged all night.

The scene during the night was wonderfully magnificent. Every shell could be tracked in its course through the air from the moment it left the gun until it exploded, scattering destruction all around. These shells, rising up against a cloud of surging flame, which sent its red light in a continued glare landward and seaward, formed an appalling spectacle. The minutest outline of the grim fort seemed sketched on a background. of fire, rendering the light which Colonel Brown hung out from its walls, in scornful bravado, offering a sure mark to the enemy, scarcely more than one of the ten thousand sparks that filled the atmosphere with gleams of gold. Far off over the beautiful land the light of that conflagration spread, filling the inhabitants with alarm; and so brightly did it flame over the ocean, that the United States steamer Mercedita floated in the glow of its ruddy light when over twenty miles at sea.

Through the heat of this conflagration the guns kept up their slow booming thunder, adding to the sublime interest of the scene. The firing on both sides was remarkable for its extreme accuracy. Shells in countless numbers fell inside of Fort Pickens, and were returned with double vigor by its guns.

All the batteries were engaged, and did their work admirably. Fort McRae, which had been so roughly handled by the Federal squadron at the last engagement, resumed its accustomed vigor, and Battery Scott kept up a constant fire throughout the engagement.

Several ships of the squadron were present, but took no part in the fight. It was well they did not, for nothing could have been gained, and probably much would have been lost had they attempted to oppose their wooden sides to stone walls and earthworks.

The bombardment was the old story of fort against fort, at a distance too great for any decisive result. The Unionists gained nothing, yet expended a large amount of powder, shot and shell, and the enemy had no greater advantage. Apart from the burning of Warrington, the Navy Yard and Woolsey, no injury worth speaking of was sustained. The next day Fort Pickens stood out against the sky grim and strong as it was before the bombardment. There were but few if any casualties worth recording during this affair. Even Colonel Brown's lantern, hung out to guide the rebel shot, failed to invite any real injury; and except that it left a wide field of devastation behind, the bombardment of Fort Pickens had few important results.

ROUT OF GENERAL MARSHALL AT PAINTSVILLE, KY.

JANUARY 7, 1862.

On the 7th of January, Colonel Garfield, who had his encampment on Muddy Creek, in Eastern Kentucky, marched to attack the rebel General Marshall, who with a large force of men and a battery of four pieces, was known to have an entrenched camp at Paintsville, the capital of Johnson county. Colonel Garfield's command, composed of the Forty-second Ohio, the Fourteenth Kentucky, and Major McLaughlin's squadron of Ohio cavalry, making an effective force of about fifteen hundred men, broke up their camp on Muddy Creek, and moved toward Paintsville. While on the march they were reinforced by a battalion of the First Virginia cavalry, under Colonel Bolles, and by three hundred of the Twenty-second Kentucky, raising the force to about twenty-two hundred men. The enemy, under Humphrey Marshall, numbering three thousand five hundred men, and having a battery of four pieces, learned of the approach, and also that of the Fortieth Ohio and of four hundred of Colonel Wolford's cavalry by the way of Mount Sterling and the valley of the Paint Creek. They had, two days previously, after burning large quantities of grain, broken up their intrenched camp, and effected a retreat to the heights on Middle Creek, two miles distant from Prestonburg. They had left a corps of observation at the mouth of Jennie Creek, three miles west from Paintsville, of three hundred cavalry, and a large force of infantry about seven miles up Jennie Creek, to protect and facilitate the passage of their trains.

Immediately on arriving Colonel Garfield, learning the position of this cavalry, but unaware of the whereabouts of the other divisions of the rebel force, immediately commenced the erection of a pontoon or floating bridge across the Paint Lick Creek, at Paintsville. At four P. M. he crossed with eight companies of the Forty-second Ohio, and two companies of the Fourteenth Kentucky, with a view of making an armed reconnoissance, and if possible of cutting off and capturing the cavalry. At two P. M. he had dispatched Colonel Bolles' cavalry and one company of the Forty-second, under the command of Captain S. M. Barber, with orders to give a good account of the cavalry. But later in the day, on learning the possibility of cutting them off, he had sent orders to Colonel Bolles not to attack them until he had obtained time to get in their rear. Not receiving the last orders, and indeed before they were issued, Colonel Bolles, in obedience to his first directions, crossed the Paint by fording, and vigorously assaulting the enemy, soon put them to flight up the valley of Jennie. In their haste, followed as they were by the cavalry, they strewed the road with their equipments,

while here and there a dead or wounded soldier gave proof that they were losing men also. The pursuit was kept up for seven miles, right into the infantry division which was guarding the train. Stationed on either side of the road, that did not permit more than two to ride abreast, it opened a heavy cross-fire on the Union cavalry, compelling them to fall back, and finally to retreat, which they did in good order, having inflicted a loss of twenty-five in killed and wounded, according to rebel account, and losing but two killed and one wounded. Fif teen rebels were taken prisoners. Meanwhile Colonel Garfield, with his command, having remained a short time to fully explore the enemy's deserted fortifications, (consisting of lunettes, breast works, rifle-pits and a fort situated on the top of a conical hill,) and wholly unaware of what had taken place, pressed forward to the hoped for consummation of the march. But few miles had been traversed, however, when the evidences of a hasty retreat became so apparent that all were convinced that the enemy had flown. The object of the march having been thus thwarted, an early return to Paintsville became desirable, and it was accomplished at the dawn.

BATTLE OF MIDDLE CREEK, KY.
JANUARY 10, 1862.

Having recruited his men by a night's rest at Paintsville, Colonel Garfield was preparing to start in immediate pursuit on the morning of the 8th, but receiving information of the superior force of the enemy, he awaited the arrival of the Fortieth Ohio regiment, and Wolford's Kentucky cavalry, by way of Mount Sterling. These troops joined him on that day, raising his effective force to about two thousand four hundred men, after deducting Colonel Bolle's Virginia cavalry, which, in obedience to orders, had returned to Guyandotte in that State. On the 9th, Colonel Garfield detailed from the Forty-second and Fortieth Ohio, and Fourteenth Kentucky each three hundred men, and from the Twentysecond Kentucky two hundred men, and taking the immediate command, supported, however, by Colonel Craner of the Fortieth, and Major Burke of the Fourteenth. After detaching Colonel Wolford's and Major McLaughlin's cavalry up Jennie's Creek, he marched up the river road leading to Prestonburg. Early on the morning of the 10th, Colonel Sheldon of the Forty-second Ohio, in command at the camp, received a dispatch from Colonel Garfield, stating that he had found the enemy, and asking reinforcements. In compliance with the order, at six A. M. on the tenth, Colonel Sheldon marched with eight hundred men, who eagerly pressed forward on their way to the scene of action. As Colonel Garfield had