"We have got Atlanta; we have got Early; we have nearly got Mobile: we will soon have Charleston, that hotbed and cradle of nullification; and I've been rocked in that cradle about eight weeks. [Great applause.] We will have Richmond by and by, and the Union, to its utmost bounds. Not Jeff. Davis, nor Beauregard, nor the prince of darkness, nor four-footed beasts, nor creeping things, can prevent it. [Applause and laughter.] The presidential contest will substantially end this war. If a peace man is elected, namely, General McClellan, the Confederacy will be recognized within a month thereafter, and the Union will be at an end. If a Union man is elected, namely, Abraham Lincoln, the present faithful head of the executive department, the rebel chiefs will read their doom in that result, their last star of hope will be extinguished, and the angels in heaven will strike their harps to hymns of praise. [Great applause.] There will be no more war, no more carnage, no more parting with John at the railroad station. This will be the happy issue of the contest. I already behold it as from the mount of vision. [Cheers.] Then keep the fires bright and the heart courageous. Let the press and the forum speak, and, like the signal fires of the Highlands, call together all the brave and true, the veterans and the new recruits alike, to beat back the foe to his dark haunts of anarchy and disunion. [Immense and enthusiastic applause.]"

Thus Colonel Harriman improved his leave of absence from military service in helping, by eloquent argument and appeal, to win that great Union victory at the polls which was to render possible the triumph of Union arms over rebellion, effectually "suppressed before the flowers should. bloom next May." The result of the exciting canvass was the reëlection of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency by a majority of more than four hundred thousand on the popular vote in twenty-two of the twenty-five States voting, and of one hundred ninety-one in the electoral college; while such a change was wrought in Congress as rendered

sure an earnest support of the administration and its most vigorous war policy, as well as the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution, abolishing and forever prohibiting slavery throughout the United States.

After the din of that bitter conflict, there was relief in the calm, kindly words of the great-souled President, uttered in response to election congratulations, when he said: "All who have labored to-day in behalf of the Union organization have wrought for the best interests of their country and the world, not only for the present but for all future ages. I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but, while deeply gratified for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one; but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of humanity. . . . The election, along with its incidental and undesired strife, has done good, too. It has demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war; until now it has not been known to the world that this was a possibility. . . . I have said before, and I now repeat, that I indulge in no feeling of triumph over any man who has thought or acted differently from myself. I have no such feeling toward any living man. . . . Those who have differed with us and opposed us will yet see that the result of the presidential election is better for their own good than if they had been successful."

CHAPTER XVII.

AT THE FRONT AGAIN.

-

IN AT THE END.

1864-1865.

ON Monday, November 21st, his leave of absence expiring the next day, O Colonel Harriman arrived at the camp of the Eleventh regiment, near the Weldon Railroad, and was heartily welcomed back to its command. The "boys" were all glad to see him. He had left his home for the front four days before, taking along with him his eldest son, Walter C., and had come by way of Fortress Monroe and City Point.

The Ninth Corps, on the 29th of November, moved to the right five miles, and went into camp in front of Petersburg, near Hancock Station, on the military railroad. From that time until April 2, 1865, -more than four months,— the Eleventh regiment, the Ninth Army Corps, and the Army of the Potomac made no essential change of position. The corps occupied the front line of works before Petersburg, extending from the Appomattox River on the right nearly to the Weldon Railroad on the left. Then came the Sixth, Second, and Fifth Corps. The colonel's pen has supplied the following summary of events occurring during that period :1

"Our lines in front of Petersburg were, much of the distance, close to the rebel fortifications. During the day we were constantly in sight of the rebel troops, and during the night in hearing of their shrill, hyena-like screams. Nearly every night rebel deserters in squads came into our lines. Constant picket-firing was kept up during the night, and

1 In History of the Eleventh Regiment: Adjutant-General's Report (1866), pp. 757, 758.

constant watchfulness to guard against surprises. Often, at the still hour of midnight, we were aroused and drawn up almost instantaneously in line of battle to repel a threatened charge. Officers and men 'slept with one eye open.' Heavy details were made each day for picket duty; brigade and regimental schools of theoretical instruction were in full vigor; division and brigade reviews, and regimental and company drill, were the order of the day. All were preparing for the last great struggle. Grant was in command. It must be fought out on this line. The country demanded. it, and the soldiers were ready for the hour and the sacrifice.

"Occasionally, during this period, we attacked the enemy on some portion of his extended lines, and at sundry times the rebels attacked us. On the 25th of March they made a vigorous assault upon the lines of the Ninth Corps at Fort Steadman at daylight. They took the fort, but an hour later were driven back with great slaughter, and a loss of two thousand prisoners. Friday, March 31st, we were aroused at three o'clock in the morning, as the Third Division was to make an attack on the rebel lines in front of Fort Sedgwick; the Second Division (ours), or one brigade of it and part of another, was to support the Third. The Ninth and Eleventh New Hampshire and the Thirtyfirst Maine, under Colonel Harriman, were to hold the brigade line. For some unknown cause the attack was not made. But the final struggle was near at hand. The air was full of rumors of an immediate and grand advance. Lee's defenses were strong, but his veteran troops trembled in their trenches."

The diary gives this additional incident :

"Thursday, March 23d. We are still in the trenches in front of Petersburg. A hurricane has passed over our camp this afternoon, demolishing our houses, tearing up large numbers of trees, two of which fell across my tent. There was a perfect hedge of fallen trees. Most of us left our tents, and hugged the ground in hollows, behind stumps, and wherever else was any security."

But a storm was soon to burst upon the other side of the lines which should bring the wicked "Confederacy toppling in remediless ruin, "on its warders' heads." Now at last the evil days of slavery-engendered civil war were almost numbered. The story of the "Last Days of the Rebellion" shall here be told by Colonel Harriman himself:

1

"The winter of 1864-1865 was very discouraging to the chief magnates of the Confederacy. To be sure, Lee was still holding Petersburg and the secession capital, but desertions from his army were going on at a rapid rate, and the handwriting on the wall began to be visible. There was no longer a 'bow set in the cloud' to assure the President of the Confederate States of America or his armies in the field. The silent soldier of the Union forces was confident, but wary. He believed the end was drawing nigh. It is Saturday afternoon, April 1, 1865, and he has already issued his order for the grand movement which is to give to the rebellion its finishing blow. A subordinate officer rides up to the headquarters of the commander of our armies, and, saluting him, says, 'General, what's the outlook?' The man of great thoughts and few words only responds, Favorable.'

"At ten o'clock that evening the cannonade begins. The batteries, the forts, the gunboats in the Appomattox, and the monitors in the James, all unite in the startling demonstration, and there is a continual succession of flashes and an unbroken roll of thunder. The enemy realized that this meant business' on the morrow. Sunday morning found the troops of both armies in line of battle. But I will consider only our side; and of only one brigade of that side can I speak with positive knowledge. While a part of this brigade held a line in front of Petersburg from Battery Twenty-four to Fort Hays, another part moved up the Jerusalem plank road and filed to the left into an open field in

1 Contributed by Colonel Harriman to the columns of The Reveille, a paper issued by E. E. Sturtevant Post, No. 2, G. A. R., Concord, N. H., during a fair held in April, 1881.