xxii Contents. PAGE Victory of Mobile Bay. Importance of Wilmington . . . 556 Capture of Fort Fisher 557 Military importance of the blockade 558 Naval operations on the Mississippi . .... 559 Both sides build ironclads ... .... 560 The Merrimac assails the wooden ships 561 The Merrimac and the Monitor ... ... 562 Other ironclad encounters . .... 563 Torpedoing of the Albemarle ....... 564 Confederate commerce-destroyers 565 The Alabama and the Kearsarge 566 War against commerce: its results .... . 567 CHAPTER XVIII. THE NORTH DURING THE WAR. (18611865.) By the late JOHN G. NICOLAY. Financial position of the North 568 Financial measures; paper-money 569 Fluctuations in the price of gold ...... 570 Change in the banking system ....... 571 System of recruiting 572 Conscription Law; violent opposition 573 Lincoln and Vallandigham 574 Special powers conferred on the President ..... 575 Lincoln's dealing with peace overtures 576 Niagara intrigue 577 Colonel Jaquess and President Davis ...... 578 Lincoln re-elected President ....... 579 Lincoln on the conditions of peace 580 Question of slavery forced on by the war 581 Fugitive slaves .......... 582 Fugitive slaves. Fre'mont's proclamation 583 Question of emancipating and arming slaves .... 584 Lincoln leans to gradual emancipation ..... 585 Lincoln urges compensation ........ 586 Slave States reject compensation ....... 587 Democratic opposition to Lincoln 588 Lincoln resolves on emancipation 589 Proclamation deferred 590 Lincoln's emancipation policy . ..... 591 Emancipation proclaimed . . . . . . . . 592 Effect on party politics 593 Emancipation adopted in West Virginia 594 Final decree of emancipation 596 Negro soldiers in the Northern armies 596 Progress of the Abolition movement 597 Reconstruction and Emancipation 598 Thirteenth Amendment proposed 599 Thirteenth Amendment adopted ....... 600 Compensation proposed but rejected . ... 601 Lincoln on slavery as the cause of the war .... 602
