wings stretching out on either side. General Sheridan's position was next to the center, in the right wing, or on its extreme left, where the first onslaught of the enemy would be made.

In the terrible battle of Stone River, Sheridan's position was on the extreme left of the right wing, joining the center. Of his valor, General Rosecrans spoke in the highest terms; his troops sustaining four successive shocks and repulsing the enemy four times, losing in the sanguinary strife the gallant Sill and Roberts.

When Sheridan had extricated his command from the forest, and got in line with the reserves, he rode up to Rosecrans, and, pointing to the remnant of his division, said, "Here is all that is left of us, General. Our cartridge-boxes contain nothing, and our guns are empty."

In his report of the struggle, General Rosecrans says: "He ought to be made a major-general for his services, and also for the good of the service."

The recommendation to higher duty and honors was heartily responded to by our noble President. The nomination of General Sheridan to a major-generalship was made and confirmed by the Senate the last day of the eventful year 1862.

In March, 1863, General Sheridan led a scouting expedition, reconnoitering the rebel position, and defeating them in several skirmishes.

The month of May was distinguished for two impor tant results in the movements of the armies-the defeat of General Hooker at Chancellorsville, and the successful arrival of General Grant's army at Vicksburg, investing that stronghold of rebellion in the southwest.

June 23d, General Rosecrans set the army-front toward Chattanooga. His rendezvous, you recollect, was at Murfreesboro, and his grand object directly in view was to drive the rebels from Middle Tennessee. Their main base of supplies was at Chattanooga, which you will see by the map lies southeast of Murfreesboro, and near the Georgia boundary. Bragg's army lay intrenched north of Duck River, from Shelbyville to Wartrace, McMinnsville, Columbia, and Spring Hill. Between Murfreesboro and his lines

were rocky hights, through which were passes for the routes of travel, called Hoover's Gap, Liberty Gay, and Guy's Gap, all held by the rebels.

Sheridan was in General McCook's corps, which moved along the Shelbyville road, and was to advance on Liberty Gap, "one of the keys to the rebel position."

He was successful in his enterprise, and soon was in possession of Shelbyville.

General Sheridan, as announced by his chief, was conspicuous in the movements and the battles which removed the head-quarters of the army to Winchester, Tennessee. Flushed with the successes at Liberty Gap and Winchester, General Sheridan's troops, in view of an impending struggle, engaged with enthusiasm in the more prosy business of getting the whole army forward toward the Tennessee River-progress being retarded by rebuilding railroads and securing the necessary supplies.

In the fore part of September, the Army of the Cumberland crossed the Tennessee at different points.

General Sheridan's division passed safely over the river on their own bridge, August 31, and swept on toward Trenton, in Dade County, Georgia, and on the 5th of September encamped a few miles from that village. The following day the march was resumed. The rebels, finding that the cavalry were approaching, Sheridan having reached Stearns's Mills, on their flank, evacuated Chattanooga.

With great sacrifice of life, through the dauntless heroism of such men as Thomas, McCook, and Sheridan, Chattanooga was saved to the Union cause. It is startling to think how near we came to a complete and disastrous defeat. Major-General McCook, General Sheridan's corps commander, gives prominence to his heroic part in the terrible fight.

General Sheridan's next advancement was an enlarged command in General Granger's corps, under General Grant, to whom, October 17, General Halleck gave the "Departments of the Ohio, of the Cumberland, and of the Tennessee, constituting the Military Division of the Mississippi."

To the threats of General Bragg to bombard Chatta

nooga, General Grant's reply was a general attack upon his enemy, weakened by the loss of twenty thousand men, led by Longstreet into East Tennessee to conquer it, November 23.

In the great conflict and victory, General Sheridan bore himself splendidly.

Re

Stung with the breaking of his division at Chickamauga, Sheridan shouts: "Show the Fourth Corps that the men of the Old Twentieth are still alive, and can fight! member Chickamauga !" And they did fight. In the thickest of the battle, he took a flask from an aid, and, filling a pewter cup, raised his cap to a rebel battery, saying, "How are you?" as he drank. Six guns were aimed at the daring horseman, but in vain. Soon after, his horse was killed under him.

In February he was again sent into East Tennessee, and drove out the rebels with great daring and heroic endu

rance.

In March, 1864, following the election of General Grant to the rank of lieutenant-general, General Sheridan was appointed to the command of the cavalry corps of the Potomac Army.

His first work was to protect the flanks of that army, when its grand advance was made, early in May, 1864.

On the 9th, he entered upon the perilous expedition to the rear of General Lee's army, cutting his way when his command were surrounded by the rebels.

After opening communication with Yorktown, and thence to Washington, he co-operated with the columns of the gallant Meade and his superior officer, in the movement toward the Chickahominy.

June 8, he started on his second cavalry expedition into the "heart of the rebel country." It was one of the most heroic, difficult, and successful enterprises of the kind in the annals of war.

During the month of July, he was engaged in cutting the railroads around Petersburg. With August, the rebels pushed out again for the rich fields of the Shenandoah Valley-making the third invasion of Maryland.

The skirmishes and battles, of which the marvelous

turning of defeat into victory at Winchester stands conspicuous in all the annals of warfare, that make up the history of Early's defeat and of the final triumph of the Union army, have a larger place in the record of the great Commander of the whole arena of national conflict for existence.

General Sheridan's great forte in command is the fiery enthusiasm with which he inspires the men-making them, like himself, insensible to danger, and resistless in valor. Grant, Sherman, and Thomas are great in strategy, and calm in execution. Sheridan has never failed in his plans, but has won his victories chiefly through this sublime heroism, on fire with martial daring and glory.

The fidelity of the staff-officer's sketch of the personal appearance and habits of General Sheridan is confirmed by all who knew him well: "In person (at least in repose) General Sheridan would not be called a handsome man. Sheridan is barely five feet six inches in hight. His body is stout, his lower limbs rather short. Deep and broad in the chest, compact and firm in muscle, active and vigorous in motion, there was not a pound of superfluous flesh on his body at the time we write. His face and head showed his Celtic origin. Head long, well balanced in shape, and covered with a full crop of close, curling, dark hair. His forehead moderately high, but quite broad; perceptives well developed, high cheek-bones, dark beard, closely covering a square lower jaw, and firm-lined mouth, clear dark eyes, which were of a most kindly character, completed the tout ensemble memory gives at the call. Always neat in person, and generally dressed in uniform, Captain Sheridan looked, as he was, a quiet, unassuming, but determined officer and gentleman, whose modesty would always have been a barrier to great renown, had not the golden gates of opportunity been unbarred for his passage."

CHAPTER XXII.

THE LEADING GENERALS IN THE CAMPAIGN.

Sketches of Major-General William Tecumseh Sherman.-Major-General George H. Thomas.-Major-General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick.-Major-General Oliver O. Howard.-Major-General James Birdseye McPherson.

NEXT in extent of command, and its importance in the vast field of strife, was the Department of the Mississippi, under the command of that gifted and splendid officer, Major-General Sherman, in whose rare company of subordinate chiefs were Thomas, Howard, Schofield, McPherson, and Kilpatrick.

Brief biographies of these brave men, at this period of rest and yet of preparation for the decisive campaign of the war, will gratify a rational curiosity, and add a personal interest to the narrative of the momentous times.

WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN,

Whose ancestors came from England and settled in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1634, was born in Lancaster, Ohio, February 8, 1820. His father, an eminent jurist of that State, died in 1848, leaving the widow, an intelligent and devout woman, with eleven children. Honorable John Sherman, of the United States Senate, is a younger brother of William Tecumseh, whose Indian name was given him by his father, because he knew and admired the celebrated warrior after whom he called his son.

The Honorable Thomas Ewing, a resident of Lancaster, knew that his gifted and departed friend had not left the large family a fortune. It would therefore be no easy task to educate and start them in the world. And his errand then was to ask the mother to commit one of the boys to his home and care.

He said, with a playful earnestness, "I must have the