Through The Valley Of Death

( Originally Published 1898 )

WHAT remains of the story of the war will be told briefly. The description of battles is not the History of the United States. - The annals of courage in the field are fascinating, and yet there is a certain monotony in them. The conditions vary, there are changing combinations, the character of generals is revealed, and traits of individual prowess are developed; but after all, the sum is that men fight, and face death, they die, they are defeated, they are victorious. Allowing for the difference of weapons, the battles of the Greeks and Persians, of the Romans and Carthaginians, of the Saxons and Normans, contain features which constantly remind us of the fights of to-day. It makes little essential difference that the range of the rifle is some miles, while that of the broadsword is the length of the arm. Men are killed in both cases.

The most deadly fighting, and many of the most striking achievements and episodes of the war, were still to come. Great reputations were to fall, and others yet greater were to be made and confirmed. Owing chiefly to the genius and marvelous vigilance of two men—Lee and Jackson—the South was to enjoy a period of apparent success; for a short time they were to carry the war into their enemy's country; but the success was technical and illusory, and the inevitable reverse was the more bitter. So many hundred thousand men must perish, and then must come the end. A civil war is not like other wars; the armies are fighting in their own country, and yield at last, not because they have lost one battle or another, but because the country is exhausted.

After the fight at Malvern Hill, McClellan remained where he was, feeding his army from ample stores, and leaving the Confederates to recuperate their strength and collect other men to supply the place of the 20,000 they had lost in those seven days. The only way to conquer such an army as Lee's was to keep pounding at it without a moment's cessation, as Grant afterward did. But McClellan, under one pretext or another, allowed his foe every chance to recover, and to forestall him; whenever, by accident or design, he had him at advantage, he turned away, and permitted him to rise again. At the present juncture, his army greatly outnumbered any that Lee could muster; but he waited until Lee was ready to march on Washington, as if the matter were no concern of his. The depression through-out the North was great; and the South, despite its terrible losses, was correspondingly elated.

Lincoln brought together the commands of McDowell, Banks and Fremont, which had been unsuccessfully opposing Jackson in the Shenandoah, and called Pope from the west to command them. Fremont resigned from jealousy, thus giving the measure and quality of his patriotism. Pope assumed control with a want of tact that set one's teeth on edge. "We have always seen our enemies' backs in the West: I come from an army which sought its enemy and beat him when found; whose policy has been not defense but attack." This was not the way to win the affection of his new soldiers. It made him enemies among his fellow officers; and there seems to be little doubt that McClellan deliberately denied him re-enforcements which he was in honor bound to supply, in order that he might be defeated and unseated from his command. That thousands of brave soldiers should die in order to gratify McClellan's spleen, seems not to have disturbed the latter.

"Let Pope get himself out of his scrape," he wrote to Lincoln. One marvels that Lincoln should have trusted him yet again after such a revelation.

Pope's force was now called the Army of Virginia, to distinguish it from the Army of the Potomac. McClellan being deposed from the chief command, Lincoln appointed Halleck, who had been in control over the Mississippi department, to succeed him. He could hardly have made a worse selection; Halleck had uniformly exerted his authority to spoil the plans of better men. He now ordered the Peninsula abandoned, counting all the money and lives spent in it as worse than wasted. The army must attack Richmond from the north. McClellan wished to cross James River and invest Richmond on the south, thereby stopping Lee's re-enforcements, and the supplies of the city. This was the plan which Grant carried out two years afterward. But Halleck had Jackson on his nerves, and the Army of the Potomac accordingly made ready to embark in the great fleet of transports waiting at Fortress Monroe.

Lee was only waiting to know whether it was to the re-enforcement of Pope or to McClellan that the army was to be assigned ; for his plan was to strike either before the reenforcements could reach them. From John Mosby, who had been a prisoner in the Federal lines, and who was after-ward famous as a cavalry ranger, he learned that Pope was the man to whom the advance on Richmond with the consolidated army was to be intrusted. He at once made ready to throw his whole army into Gordonsville, where Jackson was already confronting Pope. The railroad south to Richmond and Charlottesville starts hence. He advised Jackson in advance. Cedar Mountain is in the vicinity, with a deep ravine on its northern side. Jackson stationed himself on this hill, overlooking Banks' camp below. Banks had sent to Sigel for re-enforcements, but Sigel had sent to ask the way, and before an answer could be returned, the battle had been fought and lost. Banks had 7,500 troops, Jackson thrice as many. The latter's force was concealed by the woods; he slowly advanced under cover of artillery, to which Banks vigorously replied. Banks, ignorant of Jack-son's strength, at last resolved to attack him; and such was the courage of his soldiers, that the attempt came near resulting in a victory. Crawford outflanked them on the left, and rolled their wing back on the center in confusion. Meanwhile the Union center and left struck the enemy heavily, and were also successful. Early alone withstood them; but unless he was speedily supported, the battle was lost.

Jackson came to the rescue. At first, he too was forced back; but when he rode to the front and led the men himself, they recovered, and drove the Federals in their turn. But the latter made so strong a stand at the ravine that Jackson paused, and night put an end to the battle. Jack-son thought he must have Pope's whole army before him, and he retreated to the Rapidan. The Federals had lost nearly half of their whole number; but they had fought the most brilliant battle against odds of the war thus far. Jack-son, hampered by the very position which had seemed to give him the advantage, had been able to bring but a part of his huge force into action. The Federals suffered a technical defeat in being driven from the field which they had won; but such defeats are as good as most victories.

But the Confederates were soon to win more useful successes. A raid to the rear of the Federals by Stuart resulted in the capture of Pope's official papers, and very nearly of the general himself; and the papers showed the precise situation and plans of the Uinon army. Lee, in order to make the crossing of the Rappahannock possible for his army, sent Jackson by a detour to the Federal rear. Jackson set off with thirty-five regiments down the Shenandoah Valley; but Pope, though informed of this, did not imagine that he was going to perform the reckless maneuver which had been planned. Bearing to the right, Jackson kept rapidly on, reached the village of Salem, passed through Thoroughfare Gap, where Pope might easily have stopped his whole army with a few regiments, and descended on Manassas Junction, where were the stores for sixty thousand men. For an hour or so Jackson allowed his hungry, thirsty and ragged soldiers to help themselves to what they wanted, except to the whisky, which was poured on the ground. Then the march was resumed, and the remainder of the stores burned.

But Jackson was in a most perilous position, and Pope was soon awake to the facts. He made every preparation except the one that he should have made—he did not send a force to hold Thoroughfare Gap against Longstreet, who was following in Jackson's footsteps. Longstreet marched through without check; meanwhile Jackson chose the field of Bull Run, on which he had won his nickname, as the best adapted for the coming conflict. A part of Pope's command came in contact with a vastly superior force of the enemy concealed in Groveton Woods, and fought them till dark, killing General Ewell. At night the Federals continued their march in search of the very enemy with the bulk of which they had been contending. Jackson was waiting for Longstreet, and getting into the best position for the fray. A more absurd situation than that of Pope could not be imagined. He was by this time in force; but so wooded and uneven was the country that he could not lay his hands on his enemy, who was close at hand. And he knew that unless he could find him before he was re-enforced, the victory would be at least doubtful. He did find him at last, and the battle that was fought was one of the most desperate of the war.

Jackson had the embankment of an unfinished railroad in front of him. General Grover's division, on the Federal right, charged this, sustained a terrible fire, came into hand to hand conflict with the enemy, giving and taking the bayonet, drove them back, received the fire of the second line, drove that also back, and would have shattered the army had they been supported; but fresh troops came down upon them, and they in turn retreated. Kearney meanwhile was engaged at the other end of the line. He made charge upon charge, and forced back the enemy, which was re-enforced, and held its ground. Again he charged, with the aid of Hatch; but now part of Longstreet's men, who had arrived, came to the support of the Confederates, and the Federals must retire. This ended the fighting for the day. Pope fancied he had won, and so telegraphed to Washing-ton. He was, in fact, already defeated; and the losses on both sides were seven thousand men. The next morinng Jackson's and Longstreet's forces were united like the two sides of a triangle; Pope, with blind confidence, attacked Jackson. He imagined that warrior was retreating. The charges of yesterday were repeated with even more determination. In one place the antagonists fought within ten yards of each other for an hour, and when they had exhausted their ammunition, continued the fight with stones. But when the whole Federal force was concentrating its attention on Jackson, who was getting beaten and calling for help, Longstreet opened on the flank with his batteries. Three times he shattered the Federal ranks, and thrice they re-formed under fire; but then comes Longstreet's infantry charge, and a whole fresh army throws itself against the exhausted battalions. Pope was all but surrounded. He threw a regiment of regulars on the hill where stood the Henry House; and the Confederates could not dislodge them. Night had fallen, with drizzly rain. Under cover of the regulars the rest of the army retreated in good order, having lost fourteen thousand men; the Confederates, ten thousand. The second battle of Bull Run, as it is some-times called, had been as different as possible in its character from the first; but the result in both cases had been the same. Greater courage could not be shown than that which marked the men in the ranks on both sides; there were no green troops, no panics, here. But Pope lost, partly because he was no match for his great antagonists—Lee had come with Longstreet, and helped direct the battle—and partly through the accidents of war. He afterward tried to lay the blame of his defeat on Fitz John Porter, who was to have attacked on his left, but who confined himself to maneuvering. Porter was convicted by court-martial, but finally cleared himself. He had been ordered to engage unless opposed by Longstreet. Pope had not been aware that Longstreet had arrived; but Porter saw him, and his maneuvering was with a view of keeping him in check so as not to interfere with Pope's attack. In this he had succeeded till the end of the day, when Longstreet attacked from another position.

A few days later General Phil Kearney, during a heavy skirmish at Chantilly on September 1st, rode into a squad of the enemy, mistaking them for his own men, and was shot before he could get away. His body was returned by Jack-son with a military escort ; for he was one of the most gallant soldiers of the war.

Washington was now in a dangerous position. Lee crossed the Potomac and advanced into Maryland, which he hoped to win over to the Confederacy. McClellan, on the failure of Pope, whom he should have supported, had been tried once more with the supreme command. He re-organized the army and followed Lee. The latter had sent Jackson on a raid to Harper's Ferry, where Colonel Miles with eleven thousand men was stationed. Jackson stormed the heights and forced Miles to surrender; but McClellan had learned of his action, and that Lee's army had been depleted by Jackson's twenty-five thousand men, and he hastened on to strike Lee before Jackson could get back. He overtook his rear at South Mountain, and, after a short engagement, drove it before him and entered the valley beyond. Lee fell back to the other side of Antietam Creek. Had McClellan attacked at once he would have been victorious without difficulty; but he delayed for a day, for no other reason, so far as one can conjecture, than to allow Jackson time to get up. Jackson came, accordingly; but even with him, Lee had but forty thousand men-half the number under McClellan. There was a bridge across the creek; McClellan ordered Burnside, on his left, to cross this bridge and attack the enemy's left, as soon as Hooker's charge on the enemy's right should have been successful. But Hooker's attack on Jackson had the effect of nearly exterminating both parties; they were repeatedly reenforced, and the slaughter continued with no result. Burnside crossed the bridge at one o'clock, but was repulsed by Hill. The next day McClellan did nothing; and suffered Lee to escape under cover of the following night. The battle was indecisive, with the honors on the Confederate side; but it stopped Lee's invasion, and he was compelled to recross the Potomac. It was not until six weeks after the battle that the army of the Potomac followed Lee; and then Mc-Clellan's pursuit was so deliberate that Lincoln and Stanton were finally disillusioned, and gave him his well-deserved dismissal. A sterner sentence would not have been unjust, in such circumstances.

Burnside was chosen to supersede McClellan; but the army he was called upon to command was now one hundred and fifty thousand strong, and he declared himself incompetent for the task. But Lincoln insisted, and he acquiesced. He had none of the faults of McClellan; he was only too brave and rash. He made his plan, and did his best to carry it out; and in the single battle of Fredericksburg he lost twelve thousand men, half of whom fell in the attempt to take a single position, where the Confederates were ensconced behind a solid stone wall four feet in height. Seldom has such a massacre been seen in war.

McClellan had taken his dismissal stoically, and Lee, with a certain humorous appreciation. His saying was, that he regretted the parting with the general, "because we understood each other so well. I fear if they keep on changing generals, I may get one that I don't understand." He proved that he understood Burnside well enough; and when Grant came, he probably understood him also; but Grant could beat him.

Burnside's plan was simply to cross the Rappahannock, with a feint at Gordonsville, and advance on Richmond. Pontoons were sent to take the army across. The Confederates were strongly intrenched on the heights on the south bank of the river. There was difficulty in laying the pontoons, owing to sharpshooters' fire from the houses in Fredericksburg; but volunteers went over in boats and drove the enemy out. The bridge being then completed, the army crossed, and was gathered about the town. Below, General Franklin had gone over with fifty thousand men. The total intrenched force of the Confederates was eighty thousand. It was the 13th of December, and a thick fog lay over the valley.

Jackson commanded the right wing of the enemy, and Hunter was ordered to attack him with his whole force. Instead of doing this, he sent only Meade's corps, which charged up the hill, and broke through the line, but, being unsupported, was forced to give way, and thus the only chance of winning the battle was lost ; for had this flank been turned in force, it would have enabled the front and left attack to prevail. But the battle raged furiously on the slopes of Marye's Heights, where the stone wall crowned the hill. Upon the ascent was directed, by the defenders, a converging fire, somewhat like that which had mowed down the Confederates at Malvern Hill. The Union men advanced against it with the same bravery, and were slaughtered in the same way, only in much greater numbers. As then, too, the slaughter was wholly useless : there was no chance of taking the position. French and Hancock's corps were. the first to be sent up the hill, and Meagher's Irish brigade distinguished itself where all were heroes. Hooker, against his protestations, was ordered to renew the struggle, and he sent General Humphrey's division to destruction. Seventeen hundred men fell in fifteen minutes. Burnside, obstinate even then, arranged to send in his own corps the next morning; but General Sumner persuaded him against it. At night the Union troops retired across the river, and another attempt on Richmond had disastrously failed. The armies went into winter quarters, and all was quiet on the Potomac.

In September of this year, Lincoln had, as a war measure, issued a proclamation declaring that on and after January 1st, 1863, all slaves in seceded states would be declared forever free. It was a measure which had long been in contemplation, but had been delayed owing to doubt as to its effect. Many thought it would create or confirm a party in the North opposed to the war, and that it would inflame and render implacable the resistance of the South. Lincoln had hesitated long, for the responsibility was his. He had made the first, draft of the document in July, but had thought it prudent to wait till a decided Union victory was won; but there had followed a series of reverses. Finally came the battle of Antietam. "I had made a solemn vow to God," said Lincoln, "that if Lee was driven back from Maryland, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves." The Proclamation did not affect slaves in those slave states which had not seceded, such as Missouri and Kentucky. It proved to be as wise a measure as it was a bold one; it led to no murderous slave insurrections, as had been apprehended; and as the Confederates were already doing their best, it added nothing to the force of their resistance. But two hundred thousand negroes enlisted in consequence of it.

Burnside was succeeded by Hooker, to whom Lincoln sent a warning letter of rebuke and advice. But no movements were made till May; and meanwhile, events had been happening in the West. Grant renewed his attack on Vicksburg, his aim being to get his army and gunboats below the town. There was a bend of the river opposite Vicksburg, and the suggestion was made to dig a canal across the neck of the curve, as at Island No. 10, and turn the river into a new channel. Other ways of flanking the great river were proposed, and some of them were attempted; but none of them answered. Finally, Grant resolved to march down the west bank, in spite of the many topographical difficulties, letting the gunboats run the batteries, extending eight miles ; which they successfully did about the middle of April. Meanwhile a corduroy road had been made through the swampy land, and the army, meeting the fleet below, was ferried over to Bruinsburg on the eastern shore. Grant now had two hundred miles to march, northward, overcoming whatever resistance he might meet by the way. It took him a little over two weeks to do this, and on the road he fought and won four battles. The first was with the advance guard of Pemberton's army at Port Gibson; then he threw himself between Pemberton and Joe Johnston, who was coming to Pemberton's assistance; defeated Johnston on May 14th, and beat Pemberton in two more battles at Champion Hills and at Black River. Thus he compelled him to take refuge in Vicksburg, where he designed to capture him along with the rest of the garrison.

After the failure of Sherman's Yazoo River expedition to aid Grant in the earlier movement against Vicksburg, he had been superseded by McClernand. But when Grant was given control of the western army, he gave Sherman a corps, and they made the campaign together. On the 18th of May he had a conference with Sherman, in whom he always reposed great confidence, and they arranged their plans for investing Vicksburg.

Johnston had advised Pemberton not to stand a siege in Vicksburg, inasmuch as he would ultimately be forced to surrender; and told him his best plan would be to evacuate while it was still possible, and take his men north. But Pemberton replied that he considered Vicksburg the most important point in the Confederacy, and would hold it at all hazards.

Grant believed that the garrison was demoralized by the beating he had given Pemberton in the field, and could be captured by assault. The bridge had been destroyed, but he built others, and Sherman sent a body of regulars under Colonel Washington to take a battery. The men reached the battery, but Washington was killed, and they retreated. But Johnston was in Grant's rear, and it was necessary to make another effort. On the 22d, accordingly, supported by the fire of gunboats and batteries, another assault in force was delivered, and the flag was planted on the bastion; but it was found impossible to hold the position. All along the line of attack there were the same gallant charges, and the same results. McClernand sent a report saying he was successful, which caused Grant to order another general assault; but the report turned out to have been erroneous, and at the end of the day the repulse was complete. Vicksburg could not be taken by assault. It must be reduced by regular siege.

The siege continued for nearly seven weeks; but Grant's restless energy would not allow of his waiting for starvation to do its work; he laid out elaborate approaches and. diagonals ; and a continual fusillade of the enemy's ramparts was maintained. The practice of the Union sharpshooters be-came almost miraculous. No one could put his head above the walls with safety. Mines were dug under the works, and countermines were made by the garrison. In a word, every device which American ingenuity could suggest was employed on both sides. At eveinng there would sometimes be an informal truce, when the antagonists would chat and jest together, and exchange tobacco for hard-tack. As time went on, starvation began within the walls. Rats were sold in the butcher-shops. Bombs falling continually in the streets caused constant deaths and terror; and the inhabitants burrowed underground for safety. Finally the soldiers told Pemberton that unless they were fed they would mutiny. Pemberton consulted his council as to the chances of cutting their way out, and was told that the condition of the men made it impossible. He then resolved to surrender; and on the 3d of July a white flag appeared above the works. Pemberton and Grant met, and Grant announced that his terms were unconditional surrender; and Pemberton, after a show of resistance, submitted. The surrender was on the 4th of July. It was the most important victory of the war until the battle of Gettysburg; forty-six thou-sand prisoners went with it, sixty thousand stand of arms, and two hundred and sixty cannon. The total Federal loss was under ten thousand men. When Banks, who was besieging Port Hudson, heard the news, he caused a salute to be fired ; and the garrison, upon learning the reason of it, surrendered likewise. The Mississippi was now open, and Grant was recognized as the great soldier of the army.

Rosecranz began in June a series of maneuvers which resulted in driving Bragg into Chattanooga, where he meant to shut him up as Grant had shut up Pemberton; but Bragg was not to be so caught, and got out; Rosecranz pursued him, and his line became so extended that Bragg, being re-enforced, turned to strike it. It was rapidly drawn together, and at Chickamauga another great battle was fought.

It lasted two days, the leading feature being the tremendous and sustained attack which Bragg directed against the Uinon left under Thomas. Rosecranz kept the latter supported, but on the second day, removing a brigade too hastily, Bragg saw the opening and pushed in on the right, breaking up the Union formation, and driving the right and center back on Chattanooga, whence Rosecranz telegraphed his defeat. But Thomas stood like a rock and was not dislodged by the assaults of Bragg's whole army. The attack on him was given up at sunset, and he returned to Chattanooga during the night, bringing five hundred prisoners with him. The Federals intrenched themselves; Rosecranz was superseded by Thomas; and Grant made preparations to relieve him.

The boot now began to get on the other leg. Grant, who had gone down to New Orleans, came up in haste; Hooker was detached from the army on the Potomac, and Sherman forced his way through from the Mississippi. Al-together there were eighty thousand men on the - ground, besides the twenty-five thousand with Thomas already in-side the Chattanooga line. Davis, utterly misapprehending Bragg's danger, had ordered fifteen thousand of his men sent away to engage Burnside at Knoxville two weeks before.

Chattanooga is surrounded with hills. On the 23d of November Thomas's troops came out as if on review, and charged straight for an elevation called Orchard Knob, facing the Confederate position, captured it after a brief struggle, and occupied the batteries upon it. The Confederates lay in a line twelve miles long between Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, the latter an abrupt height rising two thousand feet. Earthworks ranged along the intervening valley. Grant's strategy assigned to Hooker the task of attacking Lookout Mountain, and to Sherman the Ridge; Bragg would deplete his center to strengthen these points, upon which Grant would direct his main strength upon it. Under cover of the early morning mist of the 23d, Sherman began his attack upon the Ridge, and gained a footing on its northern end. Hooker not only assaulted the mountain, but, warming to his work, performed the almost incredible feat of fighting his way to the dizzy summit, where he unfurled the Stars and Stripes, and his camp fires were seen sparkling in the sky. In this exploit, as in other episodes of the battle, the men in the ranks took matters into their own hands, and outdid the orders and expectations of their commanders. The air of the hills seemed to inspire them, and they achieved things which seemed impossible.

Sherman, after establishing himself on the northern end of the ridge, waited for the morrow to renew his attack. But his progress the next day was unsatisfactory, and it became evident that he would need help. Grant had sent Hooker to threaten Bragg's rear, but a swollen river and a broken bridge embarrassed him, so that the desired diversion was not accomplished. Grant, standing on Orchard Knob, ordered twenty thousand men to take a line of earthworks along the base of the ridge. Not only was the order carried out, but the men kept on up the ridge, at first leading their own officers. The latter, however, speedily leaped to the front; and at the same time Grant, perceiving that at last the time was come, directed that a charge be made along the entire line of battle. No finer spectacle could be imagined; the setting sun flung the shadow of Lookout Mountain far across the plain, but sparkled on the arms of the advancing soldiers; they were met by a fierce fire to which they did not reply, but continued to ascend the rugged steep, each man climbing as best he might, following the standards, which waved beyond; they rolled up the crest like a long wave of the sea, and overtopped it. Down sank the sun, and with it the hopes of the Confederate army; they re-treated, and their own guns turned upon them made havoc in their crowding multitudes. The great battle of Chattanooga put eastern Tennessee in the power of the Federals, and removed the defenses of the eastern states, Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas. Bragg had lost the confidence of his soldiers, and resigned. Burnside, who had been transferred from the Potomac to the Ohio, had been checked in his southward march by Longstreet's ragged but heroic corps ; but now Sherman, set free by the victory at Chattanooga, raised the siege of Knoxville. Sherman's troops had, since the 27th of September, marched five hundred and twenty miles and fought at Chattanooga; they were in training for their historic march through Georgia to the sea.

But before that decisive event, Lee and Jackson were once more to win, against all probabilities, in their conflict with the Army of the Potomac under its new leader, Hooker. Hooker had assumed the command at a time when the spirit of the army seemed broken, and desertions were numerous. He reorganized it, and made it, as he thought, the finest in the world. Possibly it was; but it had not yet got its fitting leader. Hooker's plan was good : he would feint at Fredericksburg with Sedgwick, while he himself, with the bulk of the army, crossed above Chancellorsville and attacked the Confederates' rear. He had one hundred and twenty thousand men, and the withdrawal of two divisions under Longstreet to the James had diminished Lee's strength to about fifty thousand.

Hooker reached his strategical position without mishap, and fancied he had Lee at his mercy. He was in communication with Sedgwick by way of Bank's Ford; and had he advanced it is difficult to see how he could have failed. But at the critical moment he fell back from the open plains into the Wilderness—a thick and tangled jungle, unsuitable for the movements of either cavalry or artillery. Lee had mean-while turned his army so as to face Hooker, and then, detaching Jackson to make a fifteen-mile detour with twenty thousand men to fall on Hooker's rear, he attacked in front. The first part of Jackson's movement was toward the south, and Sickles, seeing one of the flanking regiments, jumped to the conclusion that the whole Confederate army was in re-treat to Richmond; he captured the regiment, but Jackson kept on, swung to the right, passed behind the Federals, and, rushing suddenly through the thickets, surprised them at supper. There was a wild stampede, only checked by Keenan's devoted charge, which allowed Pleasanton time to get his artillery in position. It was while Jackson was rallying his men from the backward movement to which Pleasanton had forced them, that he was hit by his own men, who mistook his reconnoitering party for the enemy. He died a week later; and those last words of his—"Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees"--are peculiarly happy, as showing that amid all the shocks of war, in which he had ever borne a leading part, the heart of the great soldier was at peace. His loss was irreparable to the Southern cause, and was an omen of the end.

Hill, succeeding Jackson, was also wounded, and the command devolved upon the picturesque cavalier, Stuart; Hooker altered his formation during the night; his head-quarters were at Chancellorsville, and his two flanks on the river, his line thus forming a sharp curve. Stuart seized Hazel Grove, a small hill opposite the center, and Sickles and Slocum had to meet the whole force of the Confederate at-tack; five charges were repulsed; but Hooker was stunned by a cannon ball which struck the pillar of the house against which he leaned; Lee effected his junction with Stuart, and the day was lost for Hooker's invincible army.

But while this was going on, Sedgwick had been successful in his attack on Fredericksburg and was marching against Lee from behind. Lee turned like a panther, drove Sedgwick back across the Rappahannock, and was back before Hooker had realized his opportunity. During the night the latter moved his army back to its former position on the Washington side of the Rappahannock; and seventeen thou-sand men had been lost with no gain to show for it—except the death of Jackson and thirteen thousand men; but these were not due to Hooker's strategy. He had been a mere bewildered monster in Lee's hands, and the losses he had inflicted were due chiefly to his blind kickings and strugglings to escape. Strange was the destiny of the Army of the Potomac; but its hour came at last.

Lee, who had been so brilliant in defense, was now to prove, for the second and last time, what he could do in at-tack. His advance into Pennsylvania was well planned, but he missed the help of Jackson, who, at Cemetery Ridge, might have turned the fortunes of the invasion by one of his inimitable maneuvers. On the 3d of June Lee marched up the Valley of the Shenandoah toward Chambersburg, the Union army following in the same direction, but on the other or eastern side of the Blue Ridge. Stuart's cavalry held the passes, and prevented the Federals from knowing what was going on on the western side. Lee's army was the best yet collected by the Confederacy; he lived upon the country as he went forward, but forbore to plunder property. Hooker having resigned, Meade succeeded him. After crossing the Potomac, the two armies began to feel each other; Lee, facing east, was coming from the west of the town of Gettysburg, and Meade was taking his position on Cemetery Ridge, at the south. Lee was not then looking for a general engagement, but wished to distract Meade from threatening his communications. Neither did Meade contemplate a decisive battle; but his cavalry under Buford, put forward to veil his march to Pipe Creek, where he proposed to fight, came in contact with Lee's advance guard on the 1st of July. The valiant General Reynolds was killed here while making a reconnaissance; the Federals were forced back and suffered losses in the town; but night came on, and during the dark hours the armies on both sides came up, and were marshaled by moonlight. There were, on each side, about eighty thousand men.

The real battle began on the afternoon of July 2d. Sickles, too far in advance of the main body, was out-flanked and compelled to retire to Cemetery Ridge, where he stood. The range of hills of which Cemetery Ridge is a part has the general form of a hook; the shaft of the hook runs north and south; it bends over toward the east; Cemetery Ridge is at the bend; Culp's Hill at the barb; Little Round Top and Round Top are at the southern end of the shaft. The entire chain is south of Gettysburg town. After forcing back Sickles, Longstreet, who had driven him, was opposed by Warren with Vincent and Weed, and prevented from following up his advantage; and the position of Sickles, though he had retreated, was stronger than at first; while Ewell of the Confederates, who had in the meanwhile captured Culp's Hill, was compelled to evacuate it the next morning. The day had gone against the Federals, but they were now for the first time in a favor-able position to fight.

At one o'clock on July 3d Lee began, and for two hours maintained, a cannonade of unprecedented fury on Cemetery Ridge. Everything was torn to pieces; the Union guns could not reply effectively, and their fire ceased. At three o'clock eighteen thousand Confederates, in a double line two miles in length, preceded by skirmishers, emerged from the woods and charged. At a distance of four hundred yards the Union artillery got to work upon it; but they only quickened their advance. Now they were within range of the infantry fire; even this they braved, and with Pickett leading them they rushed up the slope. They carried the first Union line, and placed their flag upon it; but behind it was another and a stronger line. From this opened a terrific fire, striking the Confederates full in the face. It was irresistible. Not a tenth, not a quarter, nor a half of the Confederates were cut down; but three-fourths of the attacking columns were destroyed. It was the end of the charge, the end of the battle, and for practical purposes the end of the war. The invasion was over. Lee had lost thirty-six thousand men. Altogether, his two attempts to invade the North had diminished the force of the South by ninety thousand of the best troops in the world. Each had lasted about two weeks. The game might have been worth the candle, but there was not candle enough for the game. A campaign, at that rate, would cost two million men a year. Meade had lost twenty-three thousand men; but they had saved the Union.

Meade allowed Lee to retreat slowly across the Potomac. Two or three months afterward, Lee made a rapid dash across the Rapidan in the hope of getting round Meade's right flank; but Meade eluded him, and Lee too rashly pursuing his retreat, was suddenly attacked by Warren, losing nearly all of Early's command. At the end of November Meade in turn crossed the river, intending to catch Lee's army in separate parts; but Lee brought it together and fortified it so strongly that Meade gave up his purpose, and the campaign of 1863 was over. 1864 was to be the year of Grant, and the beginning of the end.

There had, however, been one incident of the campaign which deserves mention for more than one reason. A number of mointors had been building since the famous fight in Hampton Roads, and a fleet of them were now placed under the command of Admiral Dupont and taken to the harbor of Charleston. Undue confidence was felt in the ability of the armor to withstand any punishment; but it was presently apparent that it had its limits. Obstructions had been placed in the channel by the Confederates, in such a position that, while the fleet was detained by them, the concentrated fire of three hundred guns could be poured upon them. The aim of the gunners was good, and the vessels were pelted as by a hailstorm of iron; the "Keokuk," struck nearly a hundred times, was sunk, and the rest of the fleet more or less maimed. Three months later, Gillmore renewed the attack by land. Fort Wagner had been erected on the north end of a sandy spit called Morris's Island. It had resisted one assault; but on the night of July 18th a force of several thousand men under General Strong attempted it again. With these troops was the Fifty-fourth regiment, composed of negroes. Shaw was its colonel, and among its officers was young Lieutenant Higginson—the former known to be affiliated with the abolition party, and the more hated by the Southerners. This was perhaps the only battle of the war in which the animosity felt against the Northern forces by the Southern soldiers was inflamed by a sort of personal venom. That they should be called on to fight against their own former slaves, arrayed against them by their white enemies, was regarded as a wanton insult. On the other hand, the North was in great doubt as to whether these negroes, brought up to regard themselves as inferior beings, could be relied on in battle. The result was to prove that a man may be a dauntless soldier, though black, and with a life-time of slavery behind him. Gallantly led, these men, with the others, crossed the half mile of open sand which was swept by the Confederate fire, and mounted the walls of the fort. The advantage could not be held; Shaw was killed; in a few minutes Lieutenant Higginson found himself the ranking officer of the remnant of the regiment. Twelve hundred Federals were killed or wounded; among the latter a youth named Robley Evans, long afterward famous as "Fighting Bob." The Confederate loss was less than a twelfth that of their assailants. The result was in a measure satisfactory to both sides; the Federals, though utterly defeated, had proved the worth of the negro; the South had wreaked its vengeance on the latter, but was forced to concede his bravery. An ungenerous resentment marred the conduct of the victors; in burying the negroes, they flung into the same common pit the body of their gallant leader. The enmity which pursues its object beyond death is unworthy of a civilized people. The survivors of the Fifty-fourth were led back by Higginson. A siege was begun and the fort was bombarded till it was untenable, and the garrison escaped a last assault only by evacuating the place during the night. Sumter was hammered into ruins, but an assault upon it failed. The "Swamp Angel," an eight-inch Parrot gun, threw huge shells into the city of Charleston; but all efforts to capture the city failed.

Both nations were already feeling the terrible strain of the war; conscription at the North had reached men of forty-five years of age, and in the South it finally included the en-tire male population. Lincoln's emancipation of the slaves, and employment of them against their masters, was severely criticised at the North as well as denounced at the South. Draft riots broke out in New York, and a thousand of the mob were slain before order was re-established. But beneath all surface disturbances the deep purpose to urge the conflict to the end remained. Lincoln rose to the full stature of his greatness, and took his place beside Washington as the champion of his country under conditions even more appalling than those which Washington had met. On the 19th of November he made the speech at Gettysburg, on the occasion of the dedication of the cemetery there, which still remains the most memorable utterance of the war, and embodies the highest thought that any war undertaken for righteous causes can inspire. "We cannot consecrate this hallowed ground," said he. "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will but little note, nor long remember, what we say here; but it can never for-get what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to dedicate ourselves to the unfiinshed work which they so nobly advanced; to consecrate ourselves to the great task remaining, and to gather from the graves of these honored dead increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their lives. Here let us resolve that they shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish forever from the earth." Only a mind and heart of the very highest quality could have given this idea an expression so without flaw. The words take their place by an inevitable law of nature, like sea and sky and mountains. Lincoln had always been a man of great elements; but he was now arrived at almost the loftiest stage of human development. The sublimity of patriotism cannot further go; and the leader of a people in battle cannot, while the battle continues, mount above patriotism. In a calmer hour Lincoln might have spoken of the heroes who had fought against the North on that day, whose merit was no whit less than theirs; and we know that his vast magnanimity would have cordially included them. But mortal man lives in time, and according to the time must he act and speak. It is rather marvelous that Lincoln, speaking as he did at a moment when the feeling on both sides of the struggle was at its bitterest, let fall no word which should still further inflame it. The rude boatman and rail-splitter of Illinois had risen to the compass of the mightiest whom God has made.

Passing over minor episodes, including the harrowing annals of Libby Prison, we come to the military chieftain-ship of Grant in 1864. Sherman and Johnston, two masters of strategy, maneuvered against each other in Tennessee and Georgia. Sherman had the larger number of troops, but Johnston fairly matched him until Davis, failing to comprehend his merits, superseded him with Hood. He thrice attacked Sherman on his way to Atlanta, but was each time repulsed; Sherman moved his army to the rear of Atlanta, where Hood was intrenched, and when the latter sent Hardee to protect his communications Sherman threw his men between him and the city; Hardee retreated, and Hood evacuated, escaping capture. But Atlanta and Georgia were severed from the rest of the Confederacy. In the four months' campaign the two armies had lost seventy thousand men. Finally Hood collected his force and threatened Sherman's line of supplies from Nashville. Sherman, after chasing him into northern Alabama, left Thomas to meet his advance in Nashville, and turned to march seaward through Georgia with sixty thousand men. Kilpatrick's cavalry guarded against surprise; the army destroyed the lines of railway between which it journeyed on its long tramp of three hundred miles. It subsisted on the country, having entirely cast loose from its base. Leaving a wake of desolation sixty miles wide behind it, it headed for Savannah, having by a feint toward Augusta induced the force of old men and boys, who alone remained to defend the state, to gather there. For a month the North had no news of the army, and the South added to the uneasiness by circulating reports of its destruction. But by the middle of December Sherman sent news of his safe arrival at Savannah, whose garrison evacuated the town without a con-test. With a loss of but five hundred men, Sherman had destroyed a hundred million dollars' worth of property and subdivided the Confederacy. This, with Savannah and twenty-five thousand bales of cotton, was his Christmas present to the North.

Meanwhile Thomas, at Nashville, was attacked by Hood, whose courage only needed some discretion to be perfect. He pushed back Schofield and Stanley, sent out to delay him, but at the cost of a loss nearly twice as great as theirs. After some delay Thomas sallied forth to attack him. He feinted at his right and drove back his left on the 15th of December; the next morning he charged along the whole line, and Hood's army, after a fierce resistance, broke into hopeless flight. Forrest with his cavalry gave some protection to the retreat; but the pursuit was not slackened, and under its effects Hood's entire army disappeared and was never again assembled. Such an event had never before occurred.

Grant's campaign before Richmond, which now began, was a record of slaughter which one is averse from needlessly recapitulating. It was based upon Grant's determination to conquer this last of the Southern armies by exterminating it. The war thus far had showed that whichever of the antagonists was in an intrenched position generally defeated the attacking party, even when superior in numbers. Exceptions there had been, but such was the usual result. Lee had fewer troops than Grant, but in defending Richmond he was uniformly behind fortifications, which long practice had enabled his soldiers to construct in a marvelously short time. These Grant was forced to assail; his losses were fearful and often much greater than his enemy's; but so many thousand Southern soldiers fell on each occasion, and their places could not be filled. In marching to turn Lee's flank Grant had to go the longer distances; Lee, moving on the inside, and diviinng or being informed of his intention, was always beforehand, prepared for an assault. At point after point of a great circle round Richmond Grant resolutely pushed against the defense; from the north to the south he moved, and was finally besieging Petersburg. The earlier battles were fought in the Wilderness, which had already been fatal to the Union armies; it was blind fighting, in which death came from unseen sources; the tangled woods dripped with blood and were choked with corpses; they caught fire, and the wounded were roasted to death; the trees were cut down by the flying bullets; scenes were enacted surpassing in sustained horror anything known in war. Staggering from the fearful punishment, but still fighting coolly and fiercely, Lee faced his terrible opponent in these last rounds of the mighty struggle, and did all that man could, and almost more than man could be believed capable of, to destroy him as he was being destroyed. The losses were now numbered by the tens of thousands; human life seemed to have lost its value. Only an invincible soul could have endured to continue, as Grant did, so awful a conflict. " I shall fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," said he; but he fought it out on many lines, and still the heroism of the defenders kept him from his object. The silent power of this man, conscious that the refinements of strategy were here but of small avail, and able to steadily inflict wholesale slaughter on his own men in order to wear down his enemy, is one of the most impressive spectacles ever seen. He had thought it out during the earlier years of the war; he had made up his mind what to do, and now that the time was come, and the men, he unfalteringly did it. The maneuvers were for the most part of the simplest sort; Richmond was the goal; Grant edged round further and further, Lee following him on the shorter line; now and then there would be a swift countermarch, a cavalry dash, a turning back on Washington to deliver and parry an attack; but the main theme of the campaign was to press Lee back upon Richmond and there annihilate him. It is customary, comparing these two great generals, to give Lee the higher praise as a soldier of military genius; and surely he failed in no particular. But the opportunity for genius was not present; his defense admitted of no latitude of movement or choice; he must parry blows, or evade them, or distract attention by this or that desperate demonstration. So far as strategy was concerned, he had much the easier part to play; it was for Grant to take the initiative; and the things that Grant could do were as well known to Lee as to Grant; the only doubt that could enter his mind was as to which thing Grant would do next. There was nothing surprising, nothing startling or sensational in this stage of the struggle; the two gladiators stood up and struck each other deadly blows, until at last, as was inevitable from the first, the weaker sank to the ground. Perhaps no other man than Lee would have continued the fight so long; sound military judgment must criticise him here, as it would criticise Grant, had not Grant been conscious that he must eventually win. Yet it is hard to condemn a brave man for fighting while he has life to strike a blow, and Lee will perhaps always be regarded as the soldier in the war who made fewest mistakes, and necessarily he will receive the most sympathy.

The first fight in the Wilderness had no decisive result. Grant then passed the right flank of the enemy and marched to Spottsylvania Court House; but Lee had preceded him. Gaining nothing here, Grant repeated his maneuver, but was again anticipated by Lee at Cold Harbor. The Federals were repulsed from the intrenchments with heavy loss. Grant crossed the James to attack Petersburg, but Lee was there also, and compelled a siege. On the 30th of July a mine dug beneath a Confederate fort was exploded, blowing up the work with its three hundred defenders; but the Federals rushing incautiously in were slaughtered by the Confederates, who fired upon them while struggling in the ruins. Some three weeks later Grant succeeded in occupying the Weldon railroad, which communicated with the South, by the stratagem of feinting at Richmond from the north; and Lee was unable to recover it. Hunter, the Union general, having retreated into western Virginia, Early dashed up the Shenandoah toward Washington, but was compelled to fall back when within striking distance. He however sent his cavalry as far as Chambers-burg, which he burned in default of ransom. Sheridan, who had already defeated and killed Stuart, attacked and defeated Early, and drove the wreck of his army up the Shenandoah, which he completely devastated. But Early was reinforced, and struck Sheridan's army under Wright at Cedar Creek, Sheridan himself being at the moment twenty miles away at Winchester. Admonished by the sound of the guns, Sheridan rode twelve miles, met and rallied his troops, which were retreating, fell upon the enemy while plundering the camp, and utterly defeated them, again and finally destroying the army. So did the valor of one man turn the tide of war, and alter history. Sheridan then, having no other foe to fight, joined Grant before Richmond, and they only awaited the arrival of Sherman to perform the closing act of the great drama.

Banks's expedition against Red River and Texas cost him five thousand men, and supplies, and resulted in his retreat to New Orleans, where he was relieved of his command. Meanwhile Tennessee had been laid open to Confederate attack by the withdrawal of Union troops, and Forrest captured Union City, was repelled from Paducah, but was again successful at Fort Pillow, where the garrison, partly negro troops, was killed without quarter. An attempt by Porter to relieve Banks by bringing down his gunboats in the Red River was prevented by the sudden falling of the waters, and the boats were saved only by constructing wing-dams. In August, Admiral Farragut achieved a memorable feat and secured his fame by his attack on Mobile with his fleet.

In order to oversee and direct the battle, he took his station in the shrouds of his vessel, the "Hartford." He had both wooden and iron-clad ships; but his leading monitor, "Tecumseh," was destroyed by a sunken torpedo. The fleet ran past the forts; receiving and delivering a tremendous cannonade; within the bay were the Confederate ram "Tennessee" and other war vessels. Farragut had rigged false bows of iron on his wooden ships, and they attacked the "Tennessee," trying to sink her both by shot and ramming. The shot could not pierce her armor, except in one point where a shutter of a port had been destroyed; and so accurate was the Federal fire that this small aperture was penetrated by a shell, and Admiral Buchanan was wounded by it. The ram became the center of attention from the whole Federal fleet, and finally surrendered. The forts likewise capitulated; but though the port was thus closed, the city itself, until the war had ended, remained in Confederate hands.

There was still one uncaptured port in the Confederacy—Wilmington, N. C., defended by Fort Fisher. Grant sent Commodore Porter, with a fleet, and General Weitzel, with an army, against it; but General Butler usurped the command over Weitzel, gave the fort a short pounding, decided that it was too strong for him, re-embarked his troops, and went back to Fortress Monroe. Porter, remaining with his ships, asked leave to make another attempt. He forced the garrison behind their bomb-proofs by his fire, ran approaches close to the walls, and with his sailors and marines, and a somewhat larger army than before, under General Terry, made a combined assault on two sides of the fort on the afternoon of January 14, 1865. For resolute hand-to-hand fighting, both the attack and defense equaled anything seen in the war. The sailors were repulsed, but the soldiers forced their way, the garrison was driven from point to point, to the water's edge, and by midnight was compelled to surrender. "Conquered and conquerors looked upon each other with pride." In February General Schofield occupied Wilmington. Had it not been for cruisers built in England for the Confederacy, to take the place of their destroyed privateers, the South would have been driven from the sea; but these cruisers, manned by English crews, practically ruined Federal commerce. Semmes, in the "Alabama," captured sixty prizes, but was finally challenged and sunk by the Federal "Kearsarge." The impossibility of getting supplies into the South by sea caused great dearth and enormous prices; fifty dollars in paper brought but one in specie; coffee was fifty dollars a pound, and other things in proportion. Even such soldiers as those of the Confederacy cannot fight without food and clothing, though they came as near as possible to doing so. The interior railways had been torn up, and even such food as was obtainable could not be carried to the troops at the front. The men began to desert; yet the leaders would not admit defeat, and braced themselves for the final struggle before Richmond.

Besides Lee's army at Richmond, the only otner Confederate force worth considering at the beginning of 1865 was that under Johnston in the south. But against him, Sherman was arrayed; and he left his winter quarters, if such they could be called in that mild climate, in the early part of February, and headed northward; Johnston retiring before his advance. It was the season of rains, and Sherman's march was difficult, preceded as they were by Confederate cavalry, which threw every obstacle in their path; but they were veterans and it was impossible to stop them. When they crossed the boundaries of South Carolina—that state to whose initiative the secession of the southern states was due --they began a system of destruction. No consideration was shown; the country was laid waste; over it hung a canopy of smoke from burning towns and desolated farms; this was vengeance rather than war. The state capital, Columbia, was burned; Hardee evacuated Charleston, which for the better part of two years had withstood every effort of the Federals to capture it, and before the latter could occupy it, a great magazine of powder had been accidentally exploded, and hundreds of the inhabitants were killed and the city was afire. The Union troops helped to put the fire out; but Charleston, ruined by its long resistance, was hardly worth saving. Passing on into North Carolina, Sherman was con-fronted by an amalgamation of Johnston's army with the troops which had garrisoned the principal towns of the region ; but no opposition that could seriously retard him was macle. Schofield and Terry joined Sherman at Goldsboro, and this great army of one hundred thousand men was massed along the Neuse, on which Goldsboro stands. It was now possible to consider in what way Sherman should co-operate with Grant in relation to the possible attempt of Lee to escape from Richmond.

Lee's army was by this time, owing to various causes, not more than fifty thousand strong, though three times that number appeared on the rolls. He had against him what might be called a nation in arms, and never so well supplied as now with material and training for war. Lee's only hope was to make a dash through almost impossible obstructions and unite with Johnston; yet, even could he have done this, the ultimate destruction of the Confederate forces would have been none the less inevitable. Had he surrendered then, he would have lost nothing, and would have saved the lives of thousands. But though all else in war was easy to this general, surrender seems to have been almost impossible to him. When a leader's only fault is dauntless courage, he may be forgiven. He would fight to the end.

His first attempt to break out was begun by a fierce at-tack on Fort Steadman, toward the east; but this was only to mask a real movement in force toward the south. Grant however did not move his left; the fort was carried, but only to the loss of those who took it, for it was commanded by other batteries, which opened fire and compelled the surrender of the assaulting division; upon which Meade advanced and took up a position nearer the city. Grant now marched two corps of infantry from his right, behind his own lines, to the extreme left, where they were joined by Sheridan with nine thousand cavalry, and proceeded to-ward the railway which gave egress in that direction. Sheridan had occupied Dinwiddie Court House, and was about to start on a raid, when, on the 30th of March, Grant apprised him that all was ready for the final blow; but Lee, anticipating Sheridan's attack, took the offensive himself, and fell with all his strength upon Sheridan at Five Forks, directly south of Richmond. Pushed back some distance by the impetuosity of Lee's attack, Sheridan re-formed his troops at Dinwiddie, and the Fifth Corps under Warren got in the Confederate rear. Lee was now merely a fighting fugitive. On the night of April 1st a great bombardment opened on Petersburg, and the whole Union line left its intrenchments on April 2d and swept the enemy before them. The heroic defense of the garrison of Fort Gregg, two hundred and fifty strong, of which only thirty were left, deserves to be remembered. Lee, forced back within his last lines, informed the inhabitants of Richmond that they must surrender. Jefferson Davis fled, and the city became a scene of terror, horror and lawlessness. Lee, meanwhile, with the remains of his faithful troops, set out for Burkeville on the west. Grant instantly pursued him with an overwhelming force. Delayed by the necessity of collecting food for his men, Lee found himself checked by Sheridan at Jetersville. Turinng aside, he tried to reach Lynchburg, but Grant had foreseen every contingency, and hemmed him in on the right, the left, and the rear. Davies attacked his wagon train ; Custer struck and shattered his retreating column and forced the surrender of six thousand. Lee still pressed on, and fancied he might yet escape; he was fighting front and rear, and the march was a race with death. Sheridan, tireless as a bloodhound, at length flung himself across his path; Fitz Hugh Lee charged with his cavalry; but as the Uinon marched two corps of infantry from his right, behind his own lines, to the extreme left, where they were joined by Sheridan with nine thousand cavalry, and proceeded to-ward the railway which gave egress in that direction. Sheridan had occupied Dinwiddie Court House, and was about to start on a raid, when, on the 30th of March, Grant apprised him that all was ready for the final blow; but Lee, anticipating Sheridan's attack, took the offensive himself, and fell with all his strength upon Sheridan at Five Forks, directly south of Richmond. Pushed back some distance by the impetuosity of Lee's attack, Sheridan re-formed his troops at Dinwiddie, and the Fifth Corps under Warren got in the Confederate rear. Lee was now merely a fighting fugitive. On the night of April 1st a great bombardment opened on Petersburg, and the whole Union line left its intrenchments on April 2d and swept the enemy before them. The heroic defense of the garrison of Fort Gregg, two hundred and fifty strong, of which only thirty were left, deserves to be remembered. Lee, forced back within his last lines, informed the inhabitants of Richmond that they must surrender. Jefferson Davis fled, and the city became a scene of terror, horror and lawlessness. Lee, meanwhile, with the remains of his faithful troops, set out for Burkeville on the west. Grant instantly pursued him with an overwhelming force. Delayed by the necessity of collecting food for his men, Lee found himself checked by Sheridan at Jetersville. Turinng aside, he tried to reach Lynchburg, but Grant had foreseen every contingency, and hemmed him in on the right, the left, and the rear. Davies attacked his wagon train ; Custer struck and shattered his retreating column and forced the surrender of six thousand. Lee still pressed on, and fancied he might yet escape; he was fighting front and rear, and the march was a race with death. Sheridan, tireless as a bloodhound, at length flung himself across his path; Fitz Hugh Lee charged with his cavalry; but as the Uinon troopers retreated, their movement revealed a solid mass of infantry, in vast numbers, drawn up beyond. The war was over.

Lee and Grant met at Appomatox Court House, and with the simple forms of brave Americans at a supreme moment, drew up and signed the terms of Lee's surrender. "We have fought through the war together; I have done the best I could for you," were the words in which the great Virginian took leave of his troops. It was a war which had cost in killed and wounded nearly a million men; it had destroyed slavery; and it had determined that this country should become one again. The wounds it made took long to heal, but we may confidently believe that they will never again be opened.

Four years had passed from the date of the firing of the first gun against Sumter, when the Confederate army of Virginia laid down its arms. Two days later Johnston surrendered to Sherman. Smith's army on the further side of the Mississippi capitulated a month after. Jefferson Davis was captured in Georgia, while trying to escape in disguise. He had been overestimated in the South, arid in the North there were many who demanded his trial and execution for treason ; but neither the execution nor even the trial took place, though he was indicted. The country felt, upon second thought, that it would be an unwise and undiginfied act to punish in such a manner the mistaken ideas of patriotism and duty which had ruined this man. He was not suited for the position to which he had been called. He was too narrow, too rigid, too personally proud and ambitious, to be the leader of the South; he was not truly representative of what was best and noblest in them. He had neither the heroism, the tenderness, the manhood, nor the true dignity of Robert Edward Lee.

The Civil War was the result of the collision between the centrifugal and the centripetal forces which constitute the weakness and the strength of our political constitution.