the first, and Gettysburg the second, of the Confederate aggressive campaigns at the East: the fight of the Monitor and Merrimac settled the naval supremacy of the Union: Vicksburg reopened the Mississippi, and, as it were, bisected the Confederacy: Atlanta opened a path through Georgia, and, as it were, trisected the Confederacy: the battle in the Wilderness inaugurated that dernier resort of "hammering out" which made an end of the Insurrection: Nashville annihilated the Confederacy at the West: Five Forks was the initial stroke of that series under which it toppled at the East, and so the continent over.

Many battles there are, only a little less lustrous than these, as worthy of record in a complete history, and seeming for the time as decisive, but which, in fine, assumed each a different aspect when, in the progress of events, another battle was required to solve that part of the problem which they had been designed to solve. Thus, Fredericksburg did not substantially alter the relations of the combatants, sanguinary as was the shock of arms, but left them facing each other for a more decisive grapple. Thus, Chancellorsville, conclusive though it then appeared, did not settle that summer's campaign, as was seen when, a few weeks later, it was decided on the heights of Gettysburg. Thus, the magnificent conquest of New Orleans did not open the great river, but that result waited for the triumph at Vicksburg, while on the other hand the trans-Mississippi campaigns to which it gave rise, and whence so much was expected, affected but slightly the development of the war. Thus, the expulsion of Bragg from the crest of Missionary Ridge left his army to make front again beyond the Georgia line, and it was Sherman's campaign that drove it into and out from Atlanta. Thus, that first prolonged

and terrible measure of strength between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia, which began with the Peninsular campaign, was not ended there betwixt the York and the James, but very far away, on the banks of the Antietam. Nor did the Peninsular struggle, nor the passage of arms with Pope that succeeded it, give the right clue to the final and decisive battle of the varied campaign. Thus, Spottsylvania, North Anna, and Cold Harbor, were features of a campaign which did not end the war, but was prudently abandoned for a better ; and though all were startling expressions of a decisive element in the war, namely, that of unceasing "attrition," yet this element had been introduced at the previous battle of the Wilderness, and had stamped it as a decisive action.

It only remains to subjoin a word upon the method and manner of the present volume. A somewhat close military study of the war from its beginning to its end, and indeed up to this writing, many facilities in the possession of documents and verbal information communicated to me by busy actors in the drama, joined with some personal observation of a part of the battle-scenes here depicted, induced its publication. In a former work I purported to set forth a "critical history" of one of the great Union armies. My aim now is to give a series of battle-sketches designed more for popular than professional instruction. seemed to me that from many of the books on the war a wrong impressions of the event described would be left on the mind of the reader. I have endeavored to give a true and impartial account of the battles here recorded, that the perusal might neither mislead nor be devoid of profit. And in order to gain for the book a readier acceptance I have labored, while holding

It

to strict accuracy, to avoid some details which might be appropriate to more elaborate technical histories, but which to this would add diffuseness without picturesqueness.

In dividing each sketch into three sections, the Prelude, the Battle, and the Results, I aimed not only to describe the day of the battle, but to thoroughly explain the train of events which led up to it, and the circumstances under which it was fought; and then to show what it accomplished or failed to accomplish. In this way, too, a continuous thread of description will be found to run from the beginning to the end of the war, wherein are strung conveniently its Twelve Decisive Battles.

I must express my obligation to many general and field officers. for valuable manuscript material, and also to G. E. Pond, Esq., for aid in its redaction. It has not been thought advisable to incumber the pages with notes of reference, the book not being in the least of a controversial character. lytical index will be found at the close of the volume.

An ana

W. S.