454 



MATTHIAS POINT. 



MoKENZIE, WILLIAM L. 



arrived with Messrs. Mason, Slidell, and suite, 

 who were incarcerated in Fort Warren. A com- 

 mittee of the city government waited on Com- 

 mander Wilkes, who was entertained at the 

 expense of the city. 



There are in Massachusetts some 250 joint 

 stock companies for different manufacturing 

 purposes. The capital of these in 1861 was 

 $16,055,800, and paid in $12,387,651.36. 



The receipts and expenditures of the treasury 

 of the State of Massachusetts for 1861 were : 



Cash, January 1, 1861 $154,841.58 



Revenue receipts 1,133,986.08 



$1,298,827.56 

 Ordinary expenses 1,163,742.56 



Cash, December 31, 1861 $135,085.00 



Received for several funds : 



Union fund loan $2,217,500.00 



Sale of State scri p 300,000.00 



From U. 8. reimbursmcnts 984,376.00 



Emergency fund 3,201,547.00 



Total military $6,708,423.00 



Other expenses 1 ,141,375.00 



Arming troops 3,343,694.41 



Repaid banks 2,780,500.00 



Sinking fund 984,376.15 



Other expenses 631,362.44 



Cash on hand 



$7,844,798.00 



$7,739,933.00 

 . 104,865.00 



MATTHIAS POINT, on the south or right 

 bank of the Potomac, was early made the site 

 for a hattery by the Confederate troops. It is 

 about fifty miles below Washington and is 

 formed by a change in the course of the river 

 suddenly to the northward, thence sharply to 

 the south. The channel of the river is within 

 the range of ordinary cannon from the point. 



It was here that Capt. James H. Ward, of 

 the gunboat Freeborn, was killed, on the 27th 

 of June. A landing was made in the morning, 

 and the Confederate pickets driven in by Lieut. 

 Chaplin with two boats' crews from the Paw- 

 nee and one from the Freeborn, containing be- 

 tween thirty and forty men. 



Finding preparations for the erection of a 

 Confederate battery there, it was determined 

 to throw up breastworks and mount guns 

 thereon to give the enemy a warm reception, 

 should they attack the crews, who were about 

 to clear the point by cutting down the woods. 

 Accordingly, the men were set to work, under 

 cover of the Freeborn's guns, at throwing up a 

 sand-bag breastwork, and succeeded in working 

 four hours and a half, and got their works com- 

 pleted about five in the evening. They then 

 went to the boats to go on board for guns to 

 mount on the work, when, as they were em- 

 barking, they were surprised by the Confeder- 

 ates, estimated at one thousand strong, who 

 poured in a heavy and continuous fire of mus- 

 ketry upon them from the bushes near by. 



Under cover of the guns of the Freeborn the 

 crews precipitately made for the steamer, leav- 

 ing a few of the men on shore, the guns of the 

 Freeborn meanwhile opening with activity and 

 precision apparently upon the enemy, who 

 were concealed by the underbrush/ Some ten 



shells were thrown among them, with what 

 effect could not be seen. 



Captain Ward behaved with coolness, stand- 

 ing by the guns and directing the fire. When 

 his gunner received a wound in the thigh, 

 which disabled him, Capt. Ward immediately 

 took his place, and was sighting the gun, when 

 he received a Minie musket ball in the abdo- 

 men, which caused his death a few hours after. 



The men left on the shore by the boats in 

 their retreat swam out to the Freeborn one 

 of the men carrying on his back a wounded 

 comrade named Bess, who had four musket 

 balls into him. Only three men of the boats 

 were wounded, and the only life lost was that 

 of Capt. Ward, who, the moment the enemy 

 were discovered, blew the signal for the crews 

 to come aboard, and instantly opened on the 

 foe with his heavy guns. 



While the crews were engaged on the breast- 

 works, a slave approached the shore with a 

 white flag on a pole, and getting aboard the 

 Freeborn, informed Capt. Ward that the enemy 

 were in the underbrush near by, one thousand 

 strong. Still the work was continued, and 

 made ready, as the event turned, for the Con- 

 federates to occupy it with guns. 



McKENZIE, WILLIAM LTON, a Canadian 

 politician, and leader of the rebellion in 1837, 

 born about 1800, died near Toronto, August 

 26, 1801. In Dec. 1837, after the capture 

 by the English general, Sir John Colborne, 

 of the village of St. Eustatie had quelled the 

 revolutionary spirit of Lower Canada, but only 

 imparted new vigor to that of the npper prov- 

 ince, William Lyon McKenzie, then a promi- 

 nent politician and popular advocate of Upper 

 Canada, led a body of insurgents to Toronto, 

 and demanded from Sir Francis Head, the gov- 

 ernor-general of Canada, his consent to the 

 calling of a convention for the settlement of 

 the difficulties between the people and the 

 Government. Sir Francis refused, and the in- 

 surgents prepared to commence hostilities, but 

 were, compelled, from want of means, to retreat 

 to Navy Island on the Niagara River. A body 

 of 500 American sympathizers, under the lead- 

 ership of Mr. Van Rensselaer, a graduate of 

 West Point, reenforced them, and MeKenzie 

 established a provisional government, and is- 

 sued a proclamation offering, in the name of 

 the new government, 300 acres of land and 

 $100 to all volunteers to the army on Navy 

 Island, and a reward of 500 for the apprehen- 

 sion of Sir Francis Head, the governor-general. 

 The introduction of salutary reforms in Canada 

 by the British Government, and the indiffer- 

 ence and unsympathizing position of the citi- 

 zens of the United States except those immedi- 

 ately on the border, disheartened the insur- 

 gents. McKenzie, having been arrested and 

 held to bail in Buffalo, and subsequently having, 

 with his little force, been cannonaded by a 

 large force of royalists at Navy Island for sev- 

 eral days, abandoned the island with his follow- 

 ers and escaped. He was not captured, though 



