Lee's March Lincoln's Battle of defeated; but in one of the battles, which were called by the collective name of Chancellorsville, Stonewall Jackson was killed. Riding forward in front of his troops, he came between the fire of both sides, and was shot by accident by his own troops. He was carried into the hospital and his arm amputated, but he died within the week. After these successes public opinion in the South began to demand that Lee should invade the North, or at least threaten Washington. His army had been reinforced by Longstreet; losses had been supplied by a levy of conscripts, which called even boys of sixteen from school; and the army had unbounded confidence in itself. Vicksburg, on the Mississippi, was being besieged by Grant, and its fall would deal a severe blow to the Confederacy unless it were neutralised by a victory in the east. There was, moreover, the hope that, if a great battle were won by the Confederates, they would receive recognition, if not active assistance, from Great Britain and France. For these reasons Lee began his northward march in the beginning of June and invaded Pennsylvania. Hooker at first thought that this would be a good opportunity for a dash at Richmond, but Lincoln disapproved of the plan and advised Hooker, in case he found Lee moving to the north of the Rappahannock, not to cross to the south of it. "I would not take any risk," he wrote, "of being entangled upon the river, like an ox jumped half over a fence, and liable to be torn by dogs front and rear without a fair chance to gore one way or kick the other. I think Lee's army, and not Richmond, is the best objective point." Hooker took the President's advice and began well, but after a time dissensions between the commanders broke out and Hooker asked to be relieved of his command. Lincoln, knowing that harmony and effective co-operation were of final importance, appointed Meade in his stead. Lee continuing his advance, a contest took place at GettysGettysburg. burg on July 3rd. Both armies were in full force, and both felt that the impending struggle would be not only of a decisive character, but probably determine the result of the war. The forces were posted on opposite elevations-the Federals on the Cemetery Ridge, the Confederates on the Seminary Ridge. The early part of the day was spent in ominous silence, and the battle did not begin till 1 o'clock. For two hours there was a furious cannonade from ridge to ridge, the continuous and deafening roar being audible fifty miles away. The shot and shell tore up the ground and shattered gravestones, the fragments of FEDERAL VICTORY AT GETTYSBURG which, flying among the troops, exploded caissons and dis mounted guns. Lee now organised his attack and, forming 15,000 of his best "Pickett's troops in long columns, moved forward to the charge. They had Charge." to cross a mile of open ground, but before they had got halfway over the Federal artillery ploughed through and through the ranks; the gaps were filled up and the columns did not halt. As they drew nearer the batteries used grape and canister, and some infantry poured volleys of musketry into their right flank. The principal attack was directed towards the now famous " clump of trees" in a depression in Cemetery Ridge, and it was here that "Pickett's Charge" was made-a brave but ill-judged onslaught against superior odds that resulted in fearful loss. The result of this battle was the entire defeat of the Con- Lee's federates. Of the magnificent columns which left the Seminary Retreat. Ridge, only a broken fragment returned, nearly every officer, excepting Pickett, having been killed or wounded. Lee gave orders for a retreat during the night, and next day the Confederates retired, first to Hagerstown and then across the Potomac. The retreat was very pitiful, as the roads were in a bad condition. Few of the wounded had been properly cared for, and, as they were jolted along in agony, they groaned, cursed, babbled of their homes, and called upon their mates to put them out of their misery, while there was also constant apprehension of an attack in the rear. The loss of the Confederates was 36,000 killed, wounded, and missing; that of the Federals 23,000. Lee left 7,000 of his wounded amongst the unburied dead, and 37,000 muskets were picked up on the field. On the very day of Lee's retreat, July 4th, Vicksburg, on the Attack on Mississippi, the largest town in the State of Mississippi, sur- Vicksburg. rendered. It is situated on a high bluff, overlooking the river, whence it makes a sharp bend, ending in a long, narrow peninsula. Farragut, after he had captured New Orleans in April, 1862, went up the river in May and demanded its surrender, but the demand was refused and the town could not be captured without a land force. The attack was renewed at the end of 1862 by Grant and Sherman, but serious operations were not begun till the spring of 1863. Grant then undertook a new plan. Porter, who commanded the fleet, ran past the Vicksburg batteries with a number of his vessels, and Grant marched his army by a very circuitous route of seventy miles down the western bank of the river. At last he reached a place where he could cross, and on April 30th his army of 33,000 men reached high land on the eastern side of the Mississippi. Shortly after this Grant proceeded to attack the Confederate army, defeating it at Raymond and Jackson, the capital of the State, and then moved on to Vicksburg. Capture of On May 16th he encountered the bulk of the Confederate Vicksburg. forces, 20,000 strong, under Pemberton, at Champion's Hill, about halfway between Jackson and Vicksburg. Here he fought the severest battle of the campaign, in which the Confederates were defeated with heavy loss. They retreated towards Vicksburg, the Federals in quick pursuit, and on May 18th Pemberton shut himself up in the town, which Grant, with a force of 30,000 men, invested next day, Sherman being placed on the right at Haines's Bluff. The line of attack was eight miles long, and there was danger of Grant being assailed in his rear. He, therefore, ordered an assault on May 22nd, but the result was disastrous, and he settled down to a regular siege. Thousands of shells were thrown into the town, the inhabitants finding refuge in caves. Provisions became scarce and mules were eaten for food. At last the besiegers brought their trenches so close to the defences that the soldiers bandied jests with each other across the narrow space. After forty-seven days spent in this manner, when a grand assault was imminent, Pemberton surrendered unconditionally with his army of 31,600 men, 172 guns, and 60,000 muskets. By the capture of Vicksburg the Mississippi was open to the Federals, and the forces of the Confederates were cut completely in two. Dedication of the National The dead and wounded of the Federal army at Gettysburg, as well as those abandoned by Lee, were humanely cared for. A Cemetery. portion of the battlefield was transformed into a National Cemetery, in which the fallen soldiers found orderly burial. It was dedicated for this purpose on November 19th, 1863, and President Lincoln delivered on this occasion an address, which is one of the masterpieces of literature, strongly resembling the famous speech of Pericles at Athens, delivered in the Ceramicus on a similar occasion, which in all probability Lincoln had never read, or perhaps even heard of. He said: "Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth in this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether this nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are now in a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a last resting-place for those who have given their lives that that BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA CREEK nation might live. It is altogether fit and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far beyond our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to this imperishable work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be dedicated to this grand task remaining before us, that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we shall highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." The vicissitudes of the war now carry us into another region. Fight for Chattanooga is in Tennessee, not far from the borders of Alabama Chattanooga. and Georgia, and Rosecrans, opposed by the Confederate General Bragg, was manoeuvring to get possession of it. He succeeded in capturing the town, and proceeded in pursuit of Bragg. In the course of a week the two armies came up with each other, and there was fought, on September 19th and 20th, 1863, a great battle on the bank of Chickamauga Creek, one of the most murderous of the war, Bragg having 71,500 men and Rosecrans 57,000. Bragg took the offensive, and his plan was to make a feigned attack on the Federal right, while he directed his main strength towards the left, with the intention of crushing it and seizing the roads which led to Chattanooga. Chickamauga On the first day the battle began at 10 a.m. and lasted until Battle of the evening. The projected attack on the left failed, and, although the Federal positions were for a time forced back, they were Creek. resumed before night, and at the end of the day's fighting the situation was unchanged. The night was spent by both sides in preparing for a renewal of the struggle on the morrow, Bragg's design being to carry out the plan of the day before; but the fighting did not begin until the day was well advanced and the Confederates could make no permanent impression. However, through a mistake or a misunderstanding of orders, a gap of two brigades was made in Rosecrans's line. The Confederates discovered this gap, and poured through it with an energy before which the whole Federal right and part of the centre The "Rock of Chattanooga." Grant Takes Battle of Chatta nooga. crumbled away and were dispersed in flight towards Chatta nooga. Rosecrans retired, under the impression that the day was hopelessly lost, and, on reaching Chattanooga, telegraphed the disaster to Washington. He was, however, mistaken. Thomas, who commanded the centre, had, in the manoeuvring, been sent to the extreme left, where he found a strong position on the head of a ridge, around which he posted his own command of seven divisions in a flattened semicircle, and thus formed a nucleus for all the reserves who had not been under fire, with such portions of the brigades and regiments as had not been wholly destroyed by the defeat on the right. In this manner he got together about half of what remained of Rosecrans's force and held his position against Bragg's army, flushed as it was with victory. Bragg repeated his assaults throughout the whole of the day, but could not shake the lines or the courage of Thomas, who received the name of the "Rock of Chattanooga " from his devoted troops. At night Thomas began his retreat, and continued it without opposition, so that, on the morning of September 22nd, the Federal army was protected by the fortifications of Chattanooga, which had not been destroyed by Bragg when he evacuated it. The losses were very severe, those of the Federals being 16,179 men, those of the Confederates 17,804. The army of Rosecrans was not destroyed, but it was still in danger, as Bragg's army was blockading it with greatly superior numbers. The Confederates were able to cut off Rosecrans's supplies, both by rail and river, so that he depended upon a difficult road sixty miles long. Provisions and forage were soon exhausted, horses and mules perished by thousands, and the garrison began to feel the effects of famine. By October 19th, a month after Chickamauga, the situation had become so strained that Rosecrans was relieved and Thomas put in his place, while Grant was given the command of the three departments in the West and ordered personally to Chattanooga, where he arrived on October 22nd. With the help of his chief engineer, Smith, Grant arranged for a better system of supply, and, when reinforcements arrived under Hooker and Sherman, the Federals were superior in numbers and the Confederates were obliged to act on the defensive. Eventually the great Battle of Chattanooga took place on November 24th-25th, 1863, one of the most important of the war. In order to understand it, it is necessary to give some account of the ground. The valleys of the Chickamauga and the |