believe that he might be able successfully to resist General Thomas's attack, and that the tide was turning in his favor. But his exultation was short-lived. Almost immediately after this time General A. J. Smith's troops, on the right, successfully carried an important position in their front, while the cavalry on the extreme right flank of the Union army moved against the rear of the Rebel left. These successes were accompanied or immediately followed by a new charge along the whole line. The Rebels had already weakened their left in order to strengthen their troops on Overton's Hill. The colored troops, together with all Steedman's division and the entire Fourth Corps, swept forward, this time without repulse. The Confederate line gave way everywhere. The hill was captured, with its artillery, several stands of regimental colors, and a large number of Rebel prisoners. About five thousand prisoners, fifty-three pieces of artillery, twenty-five battleflags, four Rebel generals, several brigade commanders, and thousands of small-arms were taken. Hood's army was destroyed. Its total loss in the campaign was over thirteen thousand prisoners, seventy battle-flags, and seventy-two cannon. That great Confederate army, which under Johnston had successfully resisted for more than three months Sherman's advance on Atlanta, ceased to exist as an army after this battle. And to General George H. Thomas, great as a man, great as a soldier, belongs the undying fame of the achievement.

It was evening when the victory was complete. A heavy rain fell all night. Pursuit was continued the next day. Thompson's brigade of colored troops, after reaching Franklin, were sent across the country to Murfreesboro, - a terrible march over bottomless roads. Thence, moving southward through Stevenson and Huntsville, Alabama, they crossed the Tennessee River, at Decatur, in face of an opposing force from Forrest's Rebel cavalry. They continued in pursuit as far as La Grange, Alabama, supporting Palmer's cavalry, which, on or about January 1, 1865,

ended the winter campaign by the capture and destruction of the Rebel pontoon-train among the mountains.

Who will say that men who fought and suffered as did these colored soldiers have not fairly earned for themselves and their race the freedom which the war gave them? Soldierly courage and self-devotion recognize no distinction of color or race. The colored soldier of the Union takes his stand by divine right side by side with all those who, in any age, have bravely fought and died for liberty.

THE

WOMAN AND THE REBELLION.

BY ALFRED T. ANDREAS.

[Read January 8, 1891.]

HE greatest disturbing element in the politics of the American Republic has been human slavery. It created sectional divisions and interests, led to bitter internal dissensions, and finally precipitated the most gigantic war the world has ever known, - a war which settled forever the only issue that has endangered the Union of these States.

In this great struggle women bore an important and essential part. They encouraged their dearest friends and nearest relatives to shoulder the musket; and it was through their inspiration that the most and the best of our young and middle-aged men left comfortable homes, congenial occupations, profitable mercantile and professional pursuits, and took upon themselves the privations and hazards of awful war.

While the soldier in the field was deprived of the conveniences of life, endured many hardships and at times great physical suffering, the women at home lived in a continual state of suspense, anxiety, and uncertainty, day and night, all those long years. The sleepless nights they endured, the tears they shed, their mental sufferings, form a chapter in that fearful war that is beyond the scope of the imagination to portray.

The present generation cannot comprehend how political differences and sectional strife in this now happy family of States could have advanced so far and reached such a stage as to bring about armed rebellion; or why, when a terrible and destructive civil war had begun,

some means were not devised to put a stop to its awful ravages. In this day of wonderful prosperity, when the differences between political parties is so slight; amid the busy hum of profitable trade, when the tiller of the soil reaps golden harvests; when the professions and the arts and sciences make such rapid strides between the rising and setting of every sun; when the world combines to make every day one of peace, happiness, and enjoyment; when self-interest, the accumulation of wealth, the desire for prominence, the quest of fashion and luxury, have full sway over the whole civilized world, in times like these, it is absolutely impossible to comprehend that thirty years ago the reverse of the present conditions existed, and that gloom, depression, and stagnation prevailed in every section and every corner of this land.

Now a happy, contented people welcome the light of day, for all is peace and prosperity; but in those days of war, darkness only brought rest. All feared the rising of the sun, for every one trembled at what the day might bring forth. "Good news" signified that we had slain more of the enemy than they had of us, and bad news was that the reverse had occurred; but in either victory or defeat, the friends and relatives of the wounded were plunged in grief, and those of the killed were enshrouded in mourning, until there was scarcely a family in this broad land that some time during the war was not bowed down in deep sorrow over the loss of some one near and dear who had gone to the war with their blessing, but had found a soldier's grave.

In our creation, for a purpose we shall not know this side the grave, it was ordained that man should suffer, that disease and pain should follow him to the end, and that through wars should nations be purged of their social and political sins.

On this hypothesis, our war seemed a necessity.

The invention of the cotton gin, a hundred years ago, made slave labor valuable, causing the negro in the South