CONANT, HANNAH O'BRIEN C. 



CONFEDERATE STATES. 187 



they hailed with satisfaction the proposed en- 

 largement of the Welland and St. Lawrence 

 Canals ; and demanded, that in the event of the 

 negotiation of any treaty of reciprocity between 

 the United States and British Provinces, the 

 Federal Government should be careful to secure 

 a guaranty of a sufficient depth of water to 

 enable ocean steamers of not less than one 

 thousand tons, cargo-carrying capacity, to pass 

 from Port Colborne, C. W., to tide water. 



CONANT, HANNAH O'BRIEN CHAPLIN, an 

 American author, editor, and translator, born 

 in 1812, at Danvers, Mass., died in Brooklyn, 

 N. Y., February 18, 1865. She was the daughter 

 of Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin, D.D., a Baptist cler- 

 gyman distinguished for his learning, who, for 

 many years, received students in theology into 

 his family for instruction, and who was subse- 

 quently the first president of "Waterville College. 

 Possessing a remarkable aptitude for acquiring 

 knowledge, and especially for linguistic attain- 

 ments, and her family associations being almost 

 entirely with eminent scholars, she was, at 

 twenty years of age, far beyond most of her sex 

 in scholarship. At that time she married Rev. 

 Thomas J. Conant, D.D., an eminent Hebraist 

 and Biblical scholar, and for many years a 

 professor in Hamilton Theological Seminary. 

 Though thoroughly domestic in her habits, and 

 having the training of a large and interesting 

 family on her hands, Mrs. Conant found time 

 for literary pursuits, and kept up with the 

 scholarship of the age in those .departments 

 which accorded alike with her husband's tastes 

 and her own, the oriental languages and liter- 

 ature, in their bearings upon the Scriptures. 

 At the same time she maintained a very 

 thorough acquaintance with the current litera- 

 ture of the time. In 1838 she entered upon 

 the editorship of the "Mother's Monthly Jour- 

 nal," then published at Utica, N. Y., and the 

 brilliancy and ability of her editorial articles 

 and essays soon won for the periodical a large 

 circulation. In 1844 she translated a religious 

 tale by Strauss, the evangelical court preacher 

 at Berlin, entitled, "Lea; or, the Baptism in 

 Jordan." In 1850-'52 she published transla- 

 tions of Neander's Commentaries on Philip- 

 pians, John, and James." In 1855 appeared 

 hr first original publication (with the excep- 

 tion, we believe, of some Sabbath-school books), 

 " The Earnest Man," a biography in one volume 

 of the missionary Judson. In 1856 she pub- 

 lished a "Popular History of English Bible 

 Translation." In 1857, "The New England 

 Theocracy," a translation of an outline of the 

 early ecclesiastical history of New England, 

 by Uhden, a pupil of Neander; and in 1859, 

 " The History of the English Bible," a work 

 of great research and of rare ability, and 

 which has become the standard authority on 

 the subject. For more than ten years previous 

 to her death she had resided in Brooklyn, and 

 had been engaged in assisting her husband, 

 who was the principal translator employed by 

 the American Bible Union, in the preparation 



of their new version of the Scriptures. For 

 this service, Mrs. Conant's profound acquaint- 

 ance with the oriental tongues, her complete 

 command of language, and her exquisite literary 

 tastes, admirably fitted her, and her assistance 

 was of great value to the learned professor. 

 But her intellectual activity was not satisfied 

 with these labors. Aside from her home duties, 

 which were never neglected, she found leisure 

 to contribute constantly to the periodical press. 

 Her leading articles and literary and art papers 

 in the New York "Examiner," the "Independ- 

 ent," and other journals, attracted attention 

 by the elegance and purity of their style, and 

 the justice and taste of their criticisms. She 

 had been confined to her house by illness for 

 several months, but a fatal termination of her 

 disease was not apprehended till about a week 

 before her death. 



CONFEDERATE STATES. At the begin- 

 ning of 1865 the Government and people of 

 the Confederate States were apparently as reso- 

 lute in their policy of resistance and separation 

 as at any previous period, but serious and 

 alarming apprehensions existed lest that policy 

 should ultimately be a failure. Four months 

 previous the Confederacy presented the appear- 

 ance of territorial compactness with its North- 

 ern frontier from the Atlantic to the border of 

 Missouri, protected from invasion by a formi- 

 dable military defence. The lapse of this short 

 period had served to widen the separation of 

 the Western portion by a more complete Fed- 

 eral occupation of the Mississippi River. An- 

 other division had been made between the Mis- 

 sissippi and the Savannah Rivers, and the third 

 extended northward to the Richmond Penin- 

 sula and westward to Knoxville in Tennessee. 

 In the Western division the war languished in 

 consequence of the disorganization produced in 

 Gen. Price's forces by the disasters and deser- 

 tions in Missouri. East of the Mississippi were 

 the remains of Gen. Hood's army, just driven, 

 with severe loss, from before Nashville. It 

 offered protection to the large district embrac- 

 ing a portion of the States of Mississippi, Ala- 

 bama, Georgia, and Florida, which was con- 

 fronted by the well-organized and victorious 

 army of Gen. Thomas, whose base was the Ten- 

 nessee River. The railways in the rear of 

 Gen. Hood on his line of retreat had been in- 

 jured, and in places torn up. His force was liable 

 to be much reduced by lack of supplies. On the 

 south Mobile was threatened by the Federal 

 fleet and the forces at New Orleans. The 

 Eastern division presented an aspect no more 

 encouraging. Gen. Sherman was preparing to 

 move from Savannah through the Carolinas to 

 cooperate with Grant against Richmond. His 

 successful march through Georgia was an indi- 

 cation that while Thomas held Hood and Grant 

 held Lee, he could, at his pleasure, move any- 

 where within the interior of the enemy's coun- 

 try. This was certain to take place unless an 

 army could be suddenly created under Beaure 

 gard sufficiently strong to stay the progress of 



