prey whereof they had so long been baffled; and between the compact assaults fierce artillery exchanges took placeand infantry exchanges too; since the Confederate riflemen clung constantly to the field, close up to the works, wherever the roughnesses of the ground would shelter them. When darkness fell, desperate charges gave way to a general interchange of fire, but it was only at ten o'clock that the assaults ceased and the battle was over.

In this engagement at Franklin, Hood's loss was 6252, of which 702 were prisoners, while Schofield's loss was 2326, whereof 1104 were prisoners. The Confederate losses included thirteen general officers, of whom six were killed on the field, six wounded, and one captured: among the killed was Major-General Patrick Cleburne, who had risen from the ranks of an Arkansas regiment, and was, it may be said, the best soldier in Hood's army.

Schofield's aim in joining battle at Franklin, was now achieved for whereas to have fled without a stand on the banks of the Harpeth, would have turned retreat to rout, and in the intermingling of troops and trains, would have brought ruin on one or both, now he could make his way to Nashville in safety and order. A full day's journey had been secured for his trains, and, the battle being over, before midnight Schofield put his troops once more in motion, and withdrew as noiselessly and successfully from Franklin as he had from Columbia. He marched, too, with the consoling reflection that he had inflicted a terrible loss on his opponent, and checked his carcer at the outset by an unexpected and bewildering blow.

Before Hood, the headstrong, got breath again from the buffet at Franklin, the city he aimed at was safe; for the next day Thomas's reinforcements came. However, as if with appetite edged by frequent disappointment, the Confederates, on finding Schofield gone, hurried along the turnpike so stealthily emptied of their enemy, and paused only

in sight of his main citadel, which they straightway began to

environ.

II.

BATTLE OF NASHVILLE.

In a military view there was little to give the city of Nashville the significance it early assumed in the war and always maintained. There was not much in the physique of the region around it of strategic value, while historically it was proved to be a dependent post, whose evacuation could be procured by operations scores of miles away. Fortified with much care, it yet became self-supporting only with the presence of a large army, to which in turn it was as likely to prove a cage as a castle. Its lines of communication were not proof against skilful menace, so that at a well-directed shock on the flank, Nashville would succumb; as yield indeed it did to Buell, upon the fall of Donelson, when Sydney Johnston's army withdrew without a shot. It was, doubtless, this fact which influenced the conduct of Hood, who, as we shall see, having with much pains got up to Nashville, sat ten days before it, waiting to see it fall, as it might of yore, at the waving of his bâton towards its lines of supply.

ocean

However, considerations social, political, and geographical, made Nashville the great prize in Tennessee. It is the chief city of the Mississippi Valley between the Ohio and the the largest in population, the wealthiest, the leading mart of trade, the centre of social influence, and the chief focus of politics for all the region about. Within, it displays in sumptuous buildings and worthy institutions the proofs of civic prosperity and refinement, and its environs are studded with beautiful country-seats; ten handsome macadamized roads radiate to the surrounding villages, and railroads starting in all directions, link it directly to all neighboring cities. It at once became the Union depot for the great campaigns in Tennessee and Georgia, and its repossession was coveted

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by the Confederates, both for prestige and actual value, beyond that of any other city in that part of the disputed field. But Nashville was not to be had back for the asking. Though its safety could not be guaranteed by natural strength of its own, nor could any network of intrenched lines ally it to positions which might be pronounced impregnable for a given campaign, yet it was capable of effective fortification. The city lies on the picturesque heights rising from the southerly bank of a bend in the Cumberland; and, as at Franklin on the Harpeth, strong works are easily thrown up from river to river again, across the southerly side of the city, while all the rest is covered by the stream. The river was a sentry-beat for the Union gun-boats, which, ceaselessly moving to and fro, watched the banks, and prevented a hostile crossing the heights about the city swept the interval over which a storming party must pass.

The army of

Self-poised and deliberate, General Thomas arrayed his forces around Nashville, conscious that he was master of the situation. The period of doubt had passed. observation at Pulaski had been safely drawn back, with all its trains, after dealing a severe blow at its opponent. On the day of the battle of Franklin the advance of A. J. Smith's command reached Nashville from St. Louis, followed the day after by a body of five thousand returned convalescents and furloughed men of Sherman's column, from Chattanooga, who had been collected there by degrees, under Steedman: with the latter came also a colored brigade from the same point. Bodies of detached troops of all sizes, from companies to brigades, gathered from all quarters-from Missouri and Louisiana, from Kentucky and Georgia; released garrisons marched easterly from the Mississippi and westerly from the mountains; from the frontier the outposts were drawn back to the interior, and from the rear recruits streamed forward in great numbers. A volunteer division, over four thousand strong, of employees of the Quartermaster's forces, was organ