Congress Convenes in Regular Session

For the first time since the war started and following their special session which began on July 4, 1861, Congress convened on December 10, 1861. They heard a report early in session that the Union army, regular and volunteer, navy and marines now numberd 682,971 men.

One of their first votes was to move Mr. Mason and Mr. Slidell, rebel envoys to France and Britain and now incarcerated in Fort Lafayette, to solitary confinement. This was done in retaliation to the Confederate treatment of Colonel Michael Corcoran and Colonel Alfred Wood.

The whole Trent affair, incolving Mason and Slidell, was escalating in the British press.