” 12—125 vessels and 15,000 troops, under Gen. Burnside, sail for the South.
” 18—Ex-President Tyler dies.
” 19—Union victory at Mill Spring, Ky., by Gen. Shoepf over Gen. Zollicoffer and Gen. Crittenden. Much spoil taken; Gen. Zollicoffer killed.
” 27—Bishop Ames and Gov. Fish of New York appointed to visit prisons in the South, to look after the interests of Union prisoners. Confederate authorities refuse to receive them.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE SECOND PHASE OF THE WAR.
The previous period, though abounding in battles, so-called, were really skirmishes of detached bodies without any well defined plan. It covered much of the surface of all the Border States, but especially Virginia and Missouri, and was a trial of bravery and strategy in which both parties learned how to fight, and of what metal their opponents were made.
The Second Period covered about eleven months—from the advance of the Federal armies on the South in West and East, in Feb., to the close of the year.
This period is defined in its commencement, by the surrounding of the southern territory on nearly all sides by the Union forces, both naval and military; and the inauguration of aggressive movements both by sea and land; and in its close by the failure of the two southern Generals, Bragg in the West, and Lee in the East, in the endeavor to break through this beleaguering line. It was an immense and desperate conflict.