Sherman's division was endeavouring to scale the steep and difficult ground occupied by the Confederate right wing, commanded by General Hardee. The attack was pressed with the utmost gallantry, and maintained for a full hour; but the breast works which the Southerners had erected were manned by stubborn troops, the incessant flash of whose rifles carried death into the Federal ranks at every discharge. Sherman's men at last reeled back to the rear; but Grant ordered his subordinate to renew the attack. Again did those devoted soldiers move up to the assault. The ground in many parts was slippery with blood, and, rising sharply towards the barricades, presented difficulties of no ordinary kind. Yet the breastworks were once more reached, in the face of a terrific fire, both of artillery and musketry. A desperate combat took place in front of the batteries; but again the heroic masses of Sherman's corps were hurled back into the valley. Grant now directed a general movement on the left centre of the Confederates. Here also the opposition was most determined, and resulted in fearful carnage; but the weak point in the Confederate line had at length been struck. A whole brigade of Hindman's division gave way; the Federals leaped into the trenches, and scattered their antagonists right and left; and the routed line fell back towards Ringold, to the south-east of the Confederate position. Thousands of prisoners were taken, and munitions of war to a large amount fell into the conquerors' hands. General Hooker started in pursuit, and on the 26th the Confederates retired from Ringold, after an unsuccessful attempt to hold that place. They then took up a position on a line of hills called Taylor's Ridge, where they presented so menacing a front to their opponents that on the 27th General Grant determined that the pursuit should not be pushed any farther, but that Hooker should remain at Ringold, whilst Sherman, at the head of a strong force, marched against Longstreet. By this time, Cleveland, lying to the east of Chattanooga, had been occupied by a portion of Sherman's command, and the railway between that place and Dalton had been effectually destroyed, so as to prevent the possibility of a flank movement against the column advancing upon Knoxville. Bragg had completely lost the confidence of the Southern people. Though personally supported by Mr. Jefferson Davis, he was removed from his command, and the direction of the Georgian forces was for a time conferred on Hardee, whose stubborn courage and good generalship on the 25th had won the admiration of all.

It is now time to consider what was passing at Knoxville. That town is situated on the East

It

Tennessee and Georgia Railway, south of Clinch River, and north-east of Chattanooga. The point is one of great strategical importance, since it commands the whole valley of the Upper Tennessee; and on this account Grant had ordered Burnside to do his utmost for the retention of his post, threatened by the advance of Longstreet from the army before Chattanooga. Burnside was in command of two corps; but they were not very strong in numbers, and the several divisions were distributed at considerable distances from one another, and from the centre at Knoxville. A sudden attack on these scattered forces seemed not unlikely to be attended by success. Longstreet left the neighbourhood of Chattanooga in the first week of November. He took with him about 12,000 men, who were to be reinforced by the two divisions which he expected to find at Sweetwater, near Loudon; but, on arriving at that place, he discovered that the forces stationed there had been ordered to join Bragg on the banks of the Tennessee, and that some had already started. He was therefore obliged to rest contented with the regiments he already had in hand, strengthened by about 5,000 cavalry under General Wheeler. had been part of his engagement with Bragg that he was to be furnished with supplies; but no supplies were forthcoming, and he was compelled to halt for some days at Sweetwater, whilst he sent out foraging parties to collect corn, thresh it, and bring it into a proper condition for being made into bread. Not only were his men ill-supplied with food; they were also destitute of tents, and poorly furnished with clothes. Longstreet, however, had the confidence of his troops as much as Lee himself. He had been associated with many victories, and entire reliance was placed on his ability to overcome the most adverse circumstances with which he was likely to be encountered. He accordingly marched forward towards Knoxville, strong in the devotion of his men; and, having crossed the Little Tennessee, came into collision with two divisions of Burnside's forces on the 16th of November, at a place called Campbell's Station. The attack was vigorously conducted, but the Federals held their antagonists in check sufficiently to effect their retreat within the fortifications of Knoxville. Those fortifications extended from hill to hill round the town; and within the works were collected nearly 15,000 infantry and artillery together with a proportion of cavalry. Knoxville was invested by General Longstreet on the 17th and 18th of November, and on the second of those days an assault was undertaken against one of the principal outworks, which was carried after an

obstinate resistance. During the height of this action, a breastwork was charged by the Confederate infantry. A galling fire from the enemy caused them to waver and hang back, when Captain Stephen Northrop, an Englishman, formerly connected with one of the British regiments, mounted his horse, and, spurring across the plain without any companion, rode up to the Federal entrenchment. This splendid conduct had its effect upon the men. They rallied, and dashed forward; and, as the work was taken, Northrop was borne away with a rifle-ball through his shoulder, the scabbard of his sword broken by another, and the point shattered by a third.*

Although one of the outworks was now in possession of the Confederates, General Longstreet doubted his ability to carry the whole of the fortifications by assault. It was equally impossible to reduce the place by a regular siege, for which it was not at all likely that time would be allowed by the vastly superior forces under General Grant. There was consequently nothing to be done but to cut off the supplies, and thus reduce the town by famine. This, however, was in itself a work of time, and after the total defeat of Bragg it became evident that the plan was no longer practicable. A large body of Federals would soon be marching to the relief of Knoxville, and Longstreet feared to be caught between two fires. He therefore fell back on his first idea of an assault. The attack was to be made on the morning of the 29th of November, and Fort Sanders, or College Hill, was the point selected for the difficult and perilous attempt. The necessary preparations were completed on the night of November 28th; and early on the following morning the storming-parties were sent forward. The Federal batteries having been silenced, these brave men moved across the open ground, and gained the edge of the ditch; but it was then seen that there were no scaling-ladders, and, while the assailants were pausing in hesitation as to what they should do, the Federals poured so deadly a fire into their ranks that the column was broken and disorganised. Some of the men clambered up the side of the works on to the parapet, but were immediately shot down or captured. The ditch was choked with dead and wounded; and when a number of hand-grenades were thrown into the staggering mass, its cohesion was entirely destroyed, and nothing remained but to retreat.

Though greatly disappointed by the result of this attempt, Longstreet still maintained his positions round the town, the garrison and inhabitants of

*Pollard's Third Year of the War.

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which began to suffer from shortness of provisions. Sherman, however, was now on his road to Knoxville, and it was known to the army, from the reports of prisoners, that Bragg had been defeated before Chattanooga, and that succour could not be long in arriving. Marching with rapidity, and only pausing to repair broken bridges or construct new ones across the rivers by which the country was intersected, Sherman reached the vicinity of Knoxville on December 5th. Longstreet, though lately reinforced, knew that he was not strong enough to resist the united armies of Burnside and Sherman; and when the latter arrived upon the spot, he found that his adversary had already departed. He had quitted his lines on the previous night, and had moved in a north-easterly direction to the borders of Virginia. Sherman met Burnside outside the fortifications, and proposed to him to pursue Longstreet with a force sufficient to ensure the withdrawal of the Confederates from Eastern Tennessee; but the offer was refused by Burnside, who is said to have exhibited some jealousy of his distinguished colleague. He declared that Granger's corps, in addition to his own, would be sufficient to guarantee Knoxville against further attack, and that the pursuit could be undertaken by his cavalry. Very little, however, was done to harass Longstreet's rear. The Federal horsemen were roughly handled by the retreating army at a small village on the cross-roads leading to Rogersville and Cumberland Gap; after which nothing more was attempted. Sherman returned to Chattanooga, and shortly afterwards Burnside, whose health was failing him, solicited recall, and was superseded by General Forster, from the Department of North Carolina.

The fame of Sherman was now almost equal to that of Grant. He was at the time in his fortyfourth year, and during the early period of the civil war had been regarded with disfavour as a man of inferior abilities. The test of actual service, however, had shown that he was possessed, not merely of the very ordinary gift of courage, but of real military genius, of tireless energy and quick discernment. He was born at Lancaster, Ohio, on the 8th of February, 1820; but his parents belonged to the New England State of Connecticut. More remotely, the family came from the English county of Essex, for Sherman's progenitor was one of the early settlers in Massachusetts, where he arrived in the year 1634. These facts are interesting, as showing the thoroughly Northern character of this remarkable man, and explaining the energy with which he threw himself into the suppression of a Southern and slave-holding revolt. Sherman's

troops were proud of their General; their General was equally proud of them. Referring to the recent course of events in one of his official despatches, he said:" In reviewing the facts, I "In must do justice to the command for the patience, cheerfulness, and courage which officers and men have displayed throughout-in battle, on the march, and in camp. For long periods without regular rations or supplies of any kind, they have marched through mud and over rocks, sometimes barefooted, without a murmur, without a moment's

rest.

After a march of four hundred miles, without stopping for three successive nights, we crossed the Tennessee, and then turned more than one hundred miles north, and compelled Longstreet to raise the siege of Knoxville, which gave so much anxiety to the whole country." It is a well-known fact in military affairs that good officers make good soldiers. Doubtless it is equally true that good soldiers contribute to the formation of good officers, or at any rate furnish them with that material without which the highest genius is incapable of effecting great results. In Sherman and his troops were to be found all the elements of success, and a series of triumphs attended their operations wherever they carried the flag of the Republic. Nearly three years of civil war had taught the Americans, both of the North and of the South, to be soldiers in every sense of the word. They were no longer the amateurs who had been helplessly driven to the slaughter in the dark and evil days of 1861. They had acquired the professional feeling and the professional habits of veterans, to whom war is not an affair of declamation in the first instance, and of panic in the second, but a stern and terrible duty, to be faced with courage and borne with resolution. In the earlier part of the struggle, the fighting-men of the South, from their greater familiarity with arms and active exercises, had shown more military virtue than their brethren of the North; but the scale was now inclining in favour of the other side. Freedom had its heroes, as well as slavery; and not merely its heroes, but its men of genius and

success.

In Grant and Sherman alone, the Union found a guarantee that in the end its cause would certainly prevail.

Towards the close of 1863, the Federals at Knoxville advanced their posts some thirty miles in the direction of Virginia. Longstreet, on the frontier of that State, was watching them closely, and in a little while he had the opportunity of making an effective movement. On the 14th of December, a detachment of Federal cavalry, under General Shackelford, was stationed at Bean's Cross-roads, on the north side of the Holston River, at a distance of five-and-twenty miles from Knoxville. This fact coming to the knowledge of Longstreet, he moved down the valley, in the hope of cutting off the small isolated body of horsemen. Shackelford was driven from the cross-roads, and forced back six miles to the rear, with some loss in prisoners; but the alarm had spread before the attack actually began, and a brigade of infantry was moved up in support of the cavalry. The united force then assumed so strong a position that Longstreet declined any further attack. On the following day, the Federals entrenched themselves, expecting a battle of some magnitude; but, after a little skirmishing, Longstreet's divisions retired, carrying with them a large amount of sup plies, which they had had time to seize, and which proved a very welcome addition to their stores. The Confederate General withdrew to Rogersville, near the Virginian borders, and for some time contented himself with a policy of observation. The campaign of Tennessee was over, as far as concerned the year whose history we are at present relating. That Western State had been snatched from the grasp of the Confederacy, and the forces of the Union were in a favourable position for acting against Virginia and the Carolinas. . Taylor's Ridge, and the Great Smoky Mountains, were now the chief barriers interposing between the south-western armies of the two belligerents. The passes were held by Confederate troops, and it remained for a later date to disclose whether they would be able to maintain their positions, or be compelled to yield once more to the full tide of Federal strength.

1863.]

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A RENEWED Movement on the part of the Confederate Army of Virginia was undertaken in the autumn of 1863. At that time, the Federals under Meade were encamped in and around Culpepper, and Lee considered the opportunity favourable for an attack on his adversary's right flank, so as to sever its communications with the base at Alexandria. Meade's forces had been considerably weakened by the despatch of Hooker's corps to Chattanooga, and by the sending of regiments to New York for the enforcement of the Conscription Act. But Lee's army also had been reduced by the divisions sent to General Bragg, and by the granting of numerous furloughs; so that the relative condition of the two hosts was much the same as it had been. Meade, however, had not merely to guard against his military opponent, but to keep watch over a hostile population. He had found it necessary to prescribe the oath of allegiance to all residents between the Potomac and the Rappahannock, under pain of arrest; and this weakness was obviously a source of strength to the Confederate General. It seemed, therefore, not improbable that a vigorous attack might be attended by results of sufficient importance to repay the cost.

On the 9th of October, General Lee crossed the Rapidan, and advanced on Madison Court House. The advanced guard of the Federals was attacked next day near James City, a short distance west of Culpepper, and forced to retire. Meade, declining a general action, retreated towards Alexandria, having first destroyed or removed his more exposed depôts. As the Northern troops withdrew, the Southerners followed, and some sharp skirmishes took place between the Confederates, under Ewell and A. P. Hill, and the rear-guard of the Union forces. The main body of the Federals, however, continued beyond the reach of their opponents, and,

on gaining the further side of Bull Run, began to fortify themselves. By the middle of October, Meade's army was safe from further attack, and Lee had no choice but to retrace his steps. The country into which he had now penetrated had been so completely laid waste by the operations of the contending armies for two years and a half as to be quite incapable of sustaining a large body of men, and the Confederate General was too far from his stores to transport the supplies necessary for so great a number. The vicinity of the entrenchments round Washington and Alexandria, moreover, made the position very dangerous, and nothing was to be gained by a farther advance, while it was evident that a good deal might be risked. After destroying the railway from Cub Run southwards to the Rappahannock, the Confederate army returned on the 18th of October to the line of that river, their rear covered by Stuart's cavalry. The Federal cavalry, under Kilpatrick, started in pursuit, but were driven back, after an animated engagement. Lee now took up a position on the Rappahannock, stationing his forces on both sides of the Orange and Alexandria Railway. He had again shown his ability to advance in the direction of Washington; but of substantial advantages to his cause he had achieved none.

West of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Confederate officer, General Imboden, distinguished himself by some brilliant operations. Having been sent to secure the passes into the Shenandoah Valley, he surprised and captured a Federal regiment at Charleston, close to Harper's Ferry, then garrisoned by a Northern force. This occurred on the 18th of October, and the Federals afterwards advanced from the Ferry, with a view to attacking Imboden; but the Southerner rapidly withdrew, carrying with him a large amount of captured pro