accumulate overwhelming numbers and penetrate further into the country. The Government at Richmond declined these views, and accepted the danger which the alternative threatened. The consequence was the retreat of Gen. Johnston to Atlanta. Dissatisfied with the result itself had procured, the Government resolved on a change of commanders, and affected that its choice was of a "fighting man" to command the Army of Tennessee. On the 18th July, Gen. Johnston having been relieved, Hood was appointed in his place, and assumed command in the following address: “HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE, July 18, 1864. "SOLDIERS-In obedience to orders from the War Department, I assume command of this army and department. I feel the weight of the responsibility so suddenly and unexpectedly devolved upon me by this position, and shall bend all my energies and employ all my skill to meet its requirements. I look with confidence to your patriotism to stand by me, and rely upon your prowess to wrest your country from the grasp of the invader, entitling yourselves to the proud distinction of being called the deliverers of an oppressed people." It was an ascent in rank, but a fall in reputation. It was an evil star, and malignant influences that brought this promotion to Gen. Hood, and transferred him from a department, in which his brilliant execution and brave and chivalrous part had won and deserved fame, to a higher range of service for which he was unfit. A great General, one who plans campaigns and conducts entire armies, is a combination of many qualities. That Gen. Hood did not have the multitude of virtues necessary for the highest success in military life we may truly say, and yet persist in the opinion that he had much in which he might assert a brilliant reputation. His campaign, commencing at Atlanta, and ending on the banks of the Tennessee River, was full of errours. In saying this the writer is well aware that he encounters an absurd vulgar prejudice, which denies the right of one unskilled in arms to criticize military operations. This prejudice has some foundation in truth-and in this volume the writer has shown a certain regard for it; but admitted to its fullest extent, it is the most insolent nonsense, for it would require the historian, who writes on the general affairs of mankind, to be an expert in every one of these affairs; to be a General, to treat of military events; to be a statesman, to discuss political topics; to be an artist, to deal with the subjects of letters and manners. But in all these things there is a common-sense superiour to the technicalities of schools; and the comment of history and the verdict of posterity, are nothing more than its declarations. It is within the limits of general intelligence that men have a right to criticise even those affairs in which they are neither experts nor partners. With reference to the disastrous period we have referred to in the life of Gen. Hood, there are errours which must stand confessed in history, despite all technical controversies of military schools. The fact to be admitted at once is, that although a brilliant lieutenant, he was not a competent chief. He committed an errour in fighting at Atlanta, and consuming lives in an army whose numbers afforded no margin for fanciful attacks and experiments, when, if he had maintained the situation which Johnston had left, with Sherman unable to invest Atlanta on the one hand, or to retreat on the other, he would have held the Federal army suspended for destruction. He committed an errour in sending off his entire cavalry towards Chattanooga, to raid on Sherman's communications, permitting his antagonist to swing his army entirely around Atlanta, to take a new position at leisure and to effect a lodgment on the Macon road. He committed an errour, when expelled from Atlanta, in not maintaining the next best defensive position. He committed an errour, in which Gen. Grant has justly criticised him, in "supposing that an army that had been beaten and fearfully decimated in a vain attempt at the defensive, could successfully undertake the offensive." He committed an errour in attempting to recover Tennessee, when the effort uncovered the whole State of Georgia, and left it undefended to the sea. But with this list of errours there runs a series of excuses; and the Georgia-Tennessee campaign is eminently one that must be judged in the light of all its circumstances. Gen. Hood was unfortunate in not possessing the confidence of his army, and in taking command of it when it was malcontent and demoralized in conseHe found new quence of the removal of its favourite leader. dfficulties, and was embarrassed much more seriously than was generally known at the time by the suspicious machinations and appeals of the Governor of Georgia. The history of this man, Joseph E. Brown, is not yet clearly written, and his changeful sentiments and capricious moods more than once in the course of the war, excited the curiosity of the public, and challenged the suspicions of a portion of it. Had the records of the Confederate War Department not perished in the conflagration of Richmond, there might be produced from them a letter written by this man shortly after the fall of Atlanta, not only offensively criticising the management of military affairs, but demanding the return of all the Georgia troops in Gen. Lee's army in Virginia. It is sentiments like these which corrupt armies and make them an easy prey to their own distrust. Gen. Hood found himself in command of soldiers who no longer fought as in the early days of the Confederacy. His division commanders had no good feeling for him, and he had not the faculty of inspiring confidence and obtaining obedience in spite of personal disaffection. The great opportunity of his campaign in Tennessee was lost, when by disconcert in the execution of his plans he failed to cut off the enemy's retreat from Spring Hill. "In the stratagem of war, a man fails but once." Then followed the unequal battles of Nashville; the evidence of demoralization in troops strangely flying from the field when victory plainly asked but one more effort for its purchase; and the painful retreat in which an army, having lost ten thousand of its numbers and nearly all of its artillery, terminated its existence, so to speak, as "the Army of Tennessee," being only used thereafter in a feeble reconstruction of the forces south of Richmond. This campaign concluded Gen. Hood's military career. He took leave of his army in the following order: "HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE, "SOLDIERS-At my request, I have this day been relieved from the command of the army. In taking leave of you, accept my thanks for the patience with which you have endured your hardships during the recent campaign. I am alone responsible for its conception, and strove hard to do my duty in its execution. I urge upon you the importance of giving your entire support to the distinguished soldier who now assumes command, and shall look with deep interest on all your future operations, and rejoice at your "J. B. HOOD." success. Whatever may be the military judgment of the events thus concluded, there is a generosity of soul in this brief address that it is impossible to resist. It calls for tender and noble responses. The man who could thus accept the responsibilities of failure must have had a great spirit, and compels admiration at the last. He illustrated what is most difficult in human lives-even manners and perfect self-possession in misfortune. The most ill-starred General of the South; the man perhaps the least esteemed among the great military leaders of the Confederacy, yet after all, the bravest of the brave, the lion-hearted Texan was thoroughly imbued with the spirit of chivalry, when, recounting to a friend his story of disaster and mortification, he paused and said: "And yet there is something very pleasant to ride in the tide of battle, and hear the whistle of the bullets!" The fine commanding appearance of Gen. Hood in battle will long be recollected, for it impressed all observers. About six feet two inches in height, with full broad chest and a long brown beard flowing over it, blue eyes piercing though kindly, he was the picture of manly vigour; and even when crippled by his severe wounds, he maintained the appearance and port that had at first won upon his soldiers, and made him one of the most admirable figures in the army. He was remarkable for a powerful melodious voice, that rang out words of command as with the blast of a trumpet, and never failed to be heard in the storm of battle. Since the war, Gen. Hood has resorted to commercial pursuits in New Orleans. Some of his friends, affected by the disability he had sustained in the war, recently proposed a subscription for his benefit; but he proudly declined it in a few becoming and touching words, declaring that despite his maimed body and feeble health, he was yet able to win from the world the few things necessary for a livelihood. 43 LIEUT.-GEN. STEPHEN D. LEE. CHAPTER LXI. His ancestry in South Carolina.-His service in the United States Army.-Aide to Gen. Beauregard at Fort Sumter.-Commands Virginia cavalry.-Assigned to Artillery.—Gallant and important action of his batteries at Second Manassas.— Anecdote illustrating the spirit of that day.-Gen. Lee in command at Vicksburg. -Extraordinary compliment from President Davis.-Gen. Lee repulses Sherman at Chickasaw Bayou.-Battle of Baker's Creek.-Wonderful escape of Gen. Lee in the retreat.-Siege of Vicksburg.-Action of the 22d June, 1863.-Heroism of Texan soldiers.-Gen. Lee commands the cavalry in Mississippi.-His operations against Sherman.-He commands the Southwestern Department.-Raids of the enemy.—Assignment of Gen. Lee to Hood's Army.-The Tennessee campaign.Gen. Lee protects the retreat.-Reflections upon his extraordinary career. STEPHEN D. LEE was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 22d September, 1833. His family was of the most distinguished of the State, and of historical note. During the Revolutionary war, when the British took Charleston, they seized forty of the principal citizens, and confined them on prison ships at St. Augustine, until the close of the war. Among those who thus suffered for their country's cause was the great-grandfather of the subject of our sketch. His grandfather was United States Judge in South Carolina; he was a man of great talents, and he was remarkable for the prominent and brave part he took in the "Nullification" difficulties on the Union side. A long and interesting account of his life, and this phase of it, may be found in O'Neil's "Bench and Bar of South Carolina." In 1850, Stephen D. Lee entered West Point, and graduated with J. E. B. Stuart, Curtis, Lee, Pender, Pegram, Gracie, Villepigue, and others afterwards distinguished in the war of the Con |