creased in severity. The enemy could be plainly seen from our main line, moving his troops from right and left to the point of attack, and it was evident that they were massing their whole available force to meet the attack. Between seven and nine o'clock, three attempts were made by our troops to charge, but each of them was checked by the enemy's fire. Squads of men during that time. were continually trying to make their way back to our main line, but the intervening space-open ground, about one hundred and fifty yards in width—was so thoroughly swept by the enemy's fire, that many were shot down in. the attempt to escape. About nine o'clock the fire from our batteries slackened, and soon afterward the enemy rushed out of his entrenchments and charged upon the position held by our troops. They were at first checked, but finally succeeded in gaining most of the ground between the work and their line, and came within a short distance of our troops. Large numbers of the latter attempted to get back to our lines from the work and the rifle-pits and minor intrenchments about it. Many succeeded, but many also were killed and wounded. About ten o'clock the enemy made another charge, when a great swarm of men, estimated by some at a thousand, mostly blacks, broke out of the fort and attempted to escape to our lines. Hundreds of them never reached it. What was left of our troops in the work now became completely hemmed in, the Rebel standards being planted close to the parapet west of the work, and the Rebel fire causing retreat impracticable. They continued in that predicament for nearly an hour, when an order was issued directing the whole army to fall back to its original position. Whether the order ever reached those still outside of our lines is not definitely known, but it is certain that about two o'clock, General BARTLETT, who was in the fort, being unable to move, owing to the breaking of his artificial leg, sent in a note by a private, stating that, being out of ammunition, he and those with him, if not speedily relieved, would soon have to surrender. Shortly afterwards the Rebels made another charge, to which the party surrendered. Our losses in the assault and inside the mined fort were over two thousand killed, wounded and missing; those of the enemy were about twelve hundred. The experiment of General BURNSIDE proved disastrous, and no further attempt was made for the time against the rebel lines. It promised success, but tardiness in obeying orders lost us the day. SHERMAN IN THE WEST. While GRANT was directing, personally, operations in Virginia, his chosen Lieutenant, WM. TECUMSEH SHERMAN, was faithfully executing his plans in Northern Georgia. In a series of splendid battles he had driven JOHNSTON from Dalton to Atlanta, where the latter was superseded by HOOD, "a fighting man," who in three days bloody battles before Atlanta, lost over thirty thousand men killed, wounded and prisoners. HooD's terrible defeats occurred on the 20th, 22d and 28th days of July, 1864, and resulted in his being forced into the defences of Atlanta. A siege of the place was opened, but on the 26th of August, SHERMAN moved his main army by the right flank to the rear of the rebel fortifications, and on the 31st reached Jonesboro, where STEPHEN D. LEE and HARDEE attacked HOWARD's Corps, but were repulsed. The next morning, General JEFF. C. DAVIS attacked the rebel position, and carried it at the point of the bayonet. This secured us Jonesboro. During the night the rebels fled, and HOOD retreated also from Atlanta under cover of the darkness, General SLOCUM's Corps entering the city early the following morning. Thus fell the great stronghold of the rebellion in the southwest. The gigantic combinations of the Lieutenant-General were gradually developing, and the country began to realize the fact that a General had at last been found who was equal to the great emergency. He had so distributed the armies, that at every point of the compass they were hammering away at the supports of the rebellion. Although in front of Petersburg little was accomplished during the summer and autumn, yet Georgia, the very heart of the rebellion, was virtually conquered, and the power of the South proven to be centred in the two great armies of LEE and HOOD. SHERMAN had demonstrated his ability to defeat the latter in a score of battles, and GRANT had forced LEE from the Rapidan down behind the protecting works at Richmond. His keen vision penetrated through the deception which caused the North to believe that the South could carry on the war indefinitely. He believed the Rebellion was like an egg-shell, and impressed with this belief, he ordered SHERMAN to leave Atlanta and pierce through Georgia to the seaboard. SHERMAN obeyed, and the world remembers his grand march, and how he proved General GRANT's opinions to be correct. In the months of September and October, 1864, several heavy and decisive battles were fought, all resulting triumphantly for the Union arms. EARLY was completely defeated in the Shenandoah Valley, by SHERIDAN, at Opequan and Fisher's Hill, in September. The Army of the Potomac was not wholly quiet, and on the 29th of the same month General ORD, having crossed the James the previous night, attacked the strong entrenchments of the enemy at Chaffin's Farm, and carried them at the point of the bayonet, while General BIRNEY advanced from Deep Bottom and carried the New Market Road and fortifica tions General KAUTZ with his cavalry making a reconnoissance within two miles of Richmond. On the 30th General MEADE moved from his left and stormed the rebel line of works near Poplar Springs Church. At Cedar Creek, on the 19th of October, SHERIDAN almost annihilated EARLY'S army, which fled from the field demoralized, leaving ten thousand men killed and wounded and prisoners in our hands. In every quarter the rebel armies were worsted, and despondency settled over the "Confederacy." There was still a hope, however, entertained by the leaders, that during the winter they would have rest and opportunity to fill up their depleted ranks. But in this they were destined to grievous disappointment. The Lieutenant-General did not favor inaction even during the cold rains, the heavy snows, or the keen frosts of winter, and the plans of his campaigns were steadily adhered to and elaborated. While he lay before Richmond watching with eagle eye the grand army of the Rebellion, SHERMAN and THOMAS and CANBY were carrying out his instructions in their several departments. Between the 10th and 13th of November, 1864, the troops of General SHERMAN moved from Atlanta, Rome, and Kingston, Georgia, and on the 12th, SHERMAN broke up his headquarters and set out on the expedition which was to immortalize his name and establish the prowess of the American soldier on the march as well as on the battle-field. His army consisted of four corps of infantry, two divisions of cavalry, four brigades of artillery, and two horse batteries. Brevet Major-General JEFF. C. DAVIS commanded the Fourteenth Corps; Brevet MajorGeneral OSTERHAUS the Fifteenth Corps; Major-General FRANK BLAIR the Seventeenth Corps; and Major-General SLOCUM the Twentieth Corps. Major-General KILPATRICK was in command of the cavalry. This magnificent army left Atlanta fully equipped and provisioned for the enterprise, which was nothing more or less than a march through the heart of the enemy's country to the Atlantic coast. The march was made, and the problem was satisfactorily solved. The enemy could not effectually resist SHERMAN. Their spasmodic efforts with militia were of no avail. He went through Georgia without opposition, and Savannah fell into his possession. The tidings of his success filled the North with joy, and General GRANT again realized the fact, that the rebellion was in his power. THOMAS was looking after HOOD, and the commander of our armies knew that he could trust the lion-hearted and loyal old Virginian, to care for the last formidable army which the dying rebellion had in the field in the Southwest. The battle of Franklin gave HOOD a foretaste of what he might expect, and the terrible engagement near Nashville, on the 15th of December, which resulted in the total overthrow of HOOD's splendid army, broke the power of the rebellion in that region, and lifted anew the hopes of the North respecting an early termination of the war. THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. SHERMAN PRICE So stood military affairs at the end of 1864. was at Savannah: HOOD's army, which was to march to the Ohio, and invade Indiana and Ohio, was crushed and scattered, its artillery captured, and its elan gone. was routed in Missouri; EARLY was used up in the Shenandoab; BRECKINRIDGE was checkmated in East Tennessee; CANBY was operating effectively in Louisiana, and preparing to capture Mobile; and GRANT at Richmond. was holding LEE in a vice from which there was no release. The rebellion had seen desponding days, but they were radiant compared to those which now came over it in gloom and Egyptian darkness. There was no slacking |