the oath of allegiance within ten days from the date of his order, and in default thereof the officers failing should be deemed to have resigned their offices. Any officer refusing to take the oath of allegiance, who should exercise or attempt to exercise the functions of his office, should be arrested and dealt with under the laws of war.

He also ordered that all carriages bearing the enemy's flag should be seized and confiscated; and that women resorting to the neighborhood of the military prison and insulting the Federal troops, or communicating with prisoners by exhibiting and waving secession flags, should be imprisoned. Disloyal persons who, under the military rules, were liable to assessment for the support of loyal fugitives from their homes, should be compelled to pay their assessment. All persons of every rank or position, violating the laws, or interfering with their execution, should be dealt with under strict penalties.

This energetic administration had the desired effect; and the violent minority who were determined, at every hazard, to plunge the State into war, were restrained, and order and peace assured and restored.

THE STONE FLEET.

Notwithstanding all the activity and watchfulness of the blockading vessels off the Southern coast, many instances were exultingly heralded by the Southern press, as well as in Europe, of the successful running of the blockade by vessels bound both outward and inward. The logic of these occurrences was very simple on the part of the secessionists and their sympathizers. The frequent evasion of the blockade proved that it was "inefficient" on the part of the Federal government, and therefore not only to be disregarded, but officially declared by foreign governments to be incomplete, and practically null and void. This declaration was expected to be sufficient to warrant the free movements of commerce, and any attempt to interfere on the part of the United States would be a challenge for the intervention of England and France.

The repeated instances of vessels escaping rendered it an imperative necessity for the government to adopt some measure that would, if possible, prevent their recurrence at the principal ports of the South. For this purpose it was determined to close several of the harbors by placing obstructions in the channels. Most of the harbors of the Southern coast, in consequence of the deltas, and numerous islands at their entrances, have several channels, through which vessels of light draft may pass, while those of the heaviest draft are confined to one principal channel. This is the case in the approach to both Charleston and

Savannah. The obstructing of these two principal channels was therefore assigned for the month of December.

For this purpose a number of old whaling vessels were purchased at New Bedford and New London, freighted with granite from the Bay State, and taken to Port Royal as a rendezvous, whence they were to be convoyed to their destination. The people of Savannah, after the capture of Port Royal and Beaufort, anticipating the approach of the Federal fleet, volunteered the work on their own behalf and blockaded their own port by similar means. The fleet was therefore at liberty to repair to Charleston, and within sight of the walls of Sumter, to shut out the rebellious people of that city from the ocean.

The Stone Fleet" sailed from Port Royal on the 18th of December, accompanied by the steamers Cahawba, Philadelphia and Ericsson, to tow and assist, the whole convoyed by the Mohican, Captain Gordon, the Ottawa, Captain Stevens, and Pocahontas, Captain Balch.

The fleet arrived off Charleston harbor the next day and preparations were made for sinking them in their places. Each of the weatherbeaten and storm-tossed old vessels that had so long borne the stars and stripes in every latitude, were now to make a stubborn protest against treason by keeping watch at the very door of its birth-place. They were furnished with ingenious contrivances and plugs, the withdrawal of which would allow the water to flow in and sink them on the floor of the channel.

The sinking of the fleet was intrusted to Captain Charles H. Davis, formerly on the Coast Survey, and ever since more or less intimately connected with it. It is remarkable that when, in 1851, an appropriation was made by the Federal Government for the improvement of Charleston harbor, and, at the request of South Carolina, a commission of army and navy officers was appointed to superintend the work, Captain Davis was one of the commission, and for three or four years was engaged in these operations. The present attempt was of somewhat different character. The entrance by the main ship channel runs from the bar to Fort Sumter, six miles, nearly south and north. The city is three miles beyond, bearing about N. W. The other channels are Sanford's, Swash, the North, and Maffit's, or Sullivan's Island, which need not to be particularly described. Only the latter is practicable for vessels of any draught, but all serve more or less to empty the waters discharged by the Ashley and Cooper rivers. Over the bar, at the entrance of the main ship channel, is a narrow passage, through which vessels may carry eleven feet at low water; about seventeen at high water. The plan of Captain Davis for closing the harbor proceeded on the following principles:

The obstructions were to be placed on both sides of the crest of the

bar, so that the same forces which created the bar might be relied on to keep them in their places.

The bar was not to be obstructed entirely; for natural forces would soon open a new passage, since the rivers must discharge themselves by some outlet; but to be only partially obstructed, so that, while this channel was ruined, no old one, like Swash or Sanford, should be improved, or a new one formed.

The vessels were so placed that on the channel course it would be difficult to draw a line through any part of it that would not be intercepted by one of them. A ship, therefore, endeavoring to make her way out or in could not, by taking the bearings of any point of departure, as she could not sail on any straight line.

The vessels were placed checkerwise, at some distance from each other, so as to create an artificial unevenness of the bottom, remotely resembling Hell Gate and Holmes's Hole, which unevenness would give rise to eddies, counter-currents and whirlpools, adding so seriously to the difficulties of navigation that it could only be practicable by steamers, or with a very commanding breeze.

The execution of this plan was begun by buoying out the channel and circumscribing within four points the space where the vessels were all to be sunk, as follows:

*

S. W. THE BAR. * N. E.

*

The distance between the points from s. w. to N. E. is about an eighth of a mile; the breadth perhaps half as much. It was no part of the plan to build a wall of ships across, but to drop them at a little distance from each other, on the principles above stated, closing the channel to navigation, but leaving it open to the water.

Work was resumed on Friday morning, the 20th, the Ottawa and Pocahontas bringing the ships to their stations. The placing of them was an operation of considerable nicety, especially as some of the vessels were so deep as to be with difficulty dragged on the bar, except at high water. A graver hindrance to their exact location was found in the imperfection of the arrangement for sinking, several of the ships remaining afloat so long after the plug was knocked out, that they swung out of position. They were, nevertheless, finally placed very nearly according to the plan. Great credit was earned by Mr. Bradbury and Mr. Godfrey for the successful execution of so difficult an undertaking. The last ship, the Archer, closed the only remaining gap, and the manner in which Mr. Bradbury took her in with the Pocahontas and then extricated the latter from her perilous position, filled the fleet with admiration for his skillful seamanship and cool daring. By half past ten

the last plug was drawn, and every ship of the sixteen was either sunk or sinking.

One of the vessels, the Robin Hood, with upright masts, stood erect, in water too shallow to submerge her. As evening drew near she was set on fire, and in a little time the evening sky was lighted up with the pyrotechnic display, while the inhabitants of Charleston, the garrison of Fort Moultrie, and the surroundings, were compelled to look on and see the temporary completion of the blockade they had so long derided and defied.

This event provoked loud and vindictive complaints and assaults in France and England, and the measure was denounced as an outrage on civilization, and a sufficient warrant for interference in the war. But an examination of the historical precedents afforded by British practice closed the mouths of the declaimers in Parliament as well as through the press, and once more American practice was permitted to pass, justified by the verdict of opinion as well as of illustrious example.

BATTLE OF CAMP ALLEGHANY, W. VIRGINIA.
DECEMBER 13, 1861.

On Thursday morning, December 12th, Brigadier-General R. H. Milroy started from his headquarters on Cheat Mountain Summit, with fifteen hundred men,. with the design of attacking a rebel camp on the Alleghany mountains, twenty-five miles distant. The column started at eight o'clock, and after a fatiguing day's march arrived, at eight P. M., at the old Camp Bartow, on the Greenbrier river, the scene of General Reynolds' rencontre on the 3d of October previous. Here the troops. rested until eleven P. M., when the General divided his force into two columns, with the intention of reaching the enemy's camp on the summit of the mountain, about eight and a half miles distant, from two opposite points, at four o'clock, A. M., of the 13th.

The first division, consisting of detachments from the Ninth Indiana, Colonel Moody, and Second Virginia, Major Owens, about one thousand strong, took up its march on the old Greenbank road to attack the enemy on the left.

The second division consisted of detachments from the Thirteenth Indiana, Twenty-fifth and Thirty-second Ohio, and Bracken Cavalry, under Major Dobbs, Colonel J. A. Jones, Captain Hamilton and Captain Bracken. Brigadier-General Reynolds and his staff conducted this division, numerically about the same as the first division. This column took the Staunton pike, and marched cautiously until they came in sight of the enemy's camp, where, after throwing out more skirmishers, the division left the road and commenced to ascend the mountain to the

enemy's right. After driving in some of the hostile pickets they reached the summit in good order. The enemy were fully prepared to receive them. The fight on the enemy's right commenced about twenty minutes after daylight.

Lieutenant McDonald, of General Reynolds' staff, with one company of the Thirteenth Indiana, formed the line of battle, placing the Twentyfifth Ohio on his left, part of the Thirteenth Indiana on their left, and part of the Thirty-second Ohio on their left. The enemy immediately advanced to attack the Federal troops, but after a few rounds retreated in great confusion, leaving their dead and wounded. Colonel Moody's division not appearing to attack the enemy on the left, the rebels seeing the inferior force opposed to them, were again encouraged to advance toward their assailants, which they did with a far superior force, pouring in their fire with vigor. Some of the Federals now commenced falling to the rear, all along the line; but Captains Charlesworth and Crowe, of the Twenty-fifth Ohio, Lieutenant McDonald, Captains Myers and Newland, of the Thirteenth Indiana, and Hamilton, of the Thirtysecond Ohio, rallied them, and brought them into line in a few moments. The enemy again fell back and attempted to turn their right flank, but was immediately met and repulsed. The fortunes of the day appeared to alternate between the respective armies for three hours, the Federals holding out bravely against the superior numbers of the enemy, who were enabled to concentrate their entire army of two thousand men and four or five pieces of artillery against this comparatively small force.

Colonel Moody's force not having then been heard from, Colonel Jones, who had charge of the division now in action, after exhausting his ammunition, withdrew his men from the field.

Almost at this juncture, Colonel Moody's command, which had been detained by obstructions placed in the road over which they were compelled to pass, arrived, and attacked the enemy vigorously on his left, and in turn maintained an obstinate contest, unaided, against the entire rebel command, which they did with much courage and skill, until three o'clock, P. M., when they too were compelled to retire before the superior force of their opponents.

Though thwarted in his plan of attack by the unexpected obstructions which Colonel Moody's division had to encounter, General Milroy was far from being disconcerted by the result. The men had evinced a high order of courage, and the divisions had alternately maintained an obstinate fight against an army of nearly three times their number.

The official report of the casualties on the Federal side gives the number of killed, twenty; wounded, one hundred and seven; missing, ten. The rebel loss is acknowledged by the Richmond Enquirer to have been about the same.