Allied to this trait was his perfect self-reliance and confidence, which made him desire, wherever possible, to take the supreme responsibility.

:

There are two classes of commanders, of which one may be said never to have gained a battle if gained, or to have lost it if lost it was some corps, division, or brigade commander who saw and seized the key-point, or repulsed some unexpected assault, or made some happy unauthorized attack, or knew the ground whose nature had not been explained to him; or else it was some accident of fortune that gained the victory, or some error or inferiority of the enemy, and in short, anything but original planning. Nevertheless, even such are invaluable, if only they know how to use the greatness of others, though they be not great themselves.

However, Sherman belonged to the other class, and whatever victories he gained are his own. No aide-decamp drafted his plan of campaign, no subordinate detected for him the key-points of his battle-grounds, and whatever there is of good or bad in Sherman's soldiership, is his own, for glory or blame. Accustomed to thoroughly plan and prepare his campaigns at the outset, so that he had a tolerably just perspective of their daily progress, he was left with leisure to employ great care upon details. His field orders are remarkably specific in their instructions, pointing out to subdivisions the roads to be taken, and the times of starting and arrival, and the methods of manoeuvre and attack, with such minuteness as to shift much of the responsibility of the issue to the shoulders of the general-in-chief. Such orders form a marked contrast to the loose and general and conditional instructions of some commanders, whence one conceives a low idea of the influence they have exerted on the actual issue. Sherman, however, had himself furnished fine models of the promptness and precision which he desired in others. For a single example, at Vicksburg Grant had ordered Sherman to

be ready with supplies of all descriptions, to move back against Johnston on the 6th of July, for which time an assault on the city had been fixed. Sherman, without a moment's delay prepared himself, though he might have taken leisurely advantage of the interval; hence, when it so happened that Vicksburg fell on the 4th, the same day Sherman's columns were marching against the Confederate commander. Grant says, "when the place surrendered on the 4th, two days earlier than I had fixed for the attack, Sherman was found ready, and moved at once." The same trait of promptness was visible in his forced marches during the Vicksburg and Chattanooga campaigns, while, as to his precision, being a master in the art of handling troops, a hundred battalions would move to and fro beneath his skilful touch, with the smoothness of mechanism.

But here I must pause, it being no aim of mine to attempt a complete portraiture of Sherman, or even to set forth all his purely military traits; but simply to indicate the qualities which so well fitted him for the grand campaigns in Georgia and in the Carolinas. His early opponent in the former campaign, General J. E. Johnston, who might perhaps have been the Fabius Cunctator of the Confederacy, was a soldier who oftener deserved success than commanded it. Of soldierly intuition, thorough training, wide experience in his profession and among men, he was thoroughly worthy of the confidence with which he inspired the people of the Confederacy. His early Virginia campaigns illustrated his ability, while those of the West, if properly regarded, do not diminish his fame. But he was unfortunate now by reason of the overwhelming forces opposed to him, now by the folly or disobedience of subordinates, now by the exigencies of the vast region he was assigned to protect, and chiefly by the interference of the Richmond marplots, who either distorted his plans at the start, or foiled them at the moment of maturity. An excellent officer, sound in judgment, well-poised in char

acter, wary, prudent, circumspect, he admirably husbanded his resources, and was never taken unawares. He conducted his campaigns with a vigor and intelligence which extorted admiration from his opponents, though it provoked censure from his government. After Vicksburg, Mr. Davis was desirous to remove him from command, and plunge him in oblivion; after Atlanta, he fancied that he had permanently submerged him; yet he again rose to the surface in North Carolina, whither his old antagonist in his continental campaigning had now brought the Army of the Mississippi to confront him. No higher praise could be awarded him, and no better consolation for the rebuffs of fortune, than this evidence of the trust of the people of the South, constant through all adversity.

It would not be difficult to trace a kinship of genius between the two great antagonists in the Atlanta campaign; and it is worthy of note that each had the highest appreciation of the other's talent. Sherman's official report is replete with expressions of admiration at the procedure of his "astute adversary," and I well remember that the same sentiment was frequently expressed toward Sherman by Johnston in many conversations which I had with him in North Carolina at the close of the war. They were, in fact, both consummate strategists; both operated according to large plans; both understood perfectly the true nature of war: and the campaign in which these worthy rivals pitted their skill against each other forms one of the most wonderful exhibitions of military chess-playing on record.

XI.

NASHVILLE.

I.

PRELUDE TO NASHVILLE.

In early autumn of 1864, the good people of Georgia and Alabama were startled by the apparition of the gaunt, cadaverous figure of Jefferson Davis, preaching among them a new crusade against the North: like Peter the Hermit, he journeyed from town to town, stirring up the minds of men and of women to his project. To say truth, the times were inauspicious for a tour of enthusiasm, people being still wonderstruck with the fall of Atlanta; but it was this event itself which inspired the Presidential peregrination. Aware that Virginia was safe in the watch-care of General Lee, and the Eastern Campaign in train of prosperous continuance till another spring, the West had become the focus of all the Confederate President's anxieties. And well it might, since there another summer of discontent was now added to those years of uniform misfortune, in whose course not only had the great Mississippi Basin been delivered. over to the enemy, but even the Alleghanies, whose wooded crags and labyrinthine fastnesses promised a century's warfare, when sea, and gulf, and stream, the South over, should be conquered: these, too, had been o'ermastered from the Chattahoochie back to the Ohio.

Fearful lest some spell had fallen upon the Western people,