THE FEDERAL AND CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS.

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theatre of incessant conflict, but the bulk of the forces had been withdrawn by both sides to support the more critical operations in the eastern Valley. The bravery of the Southern armies had covered them with glory and required an equal valor and far greater resources on the Federal side to make head against them. The Confederate soldier was often in want of almost everything but the most indispensable means of fighting and keeping life in his worn, overworked and underfed body; while the invasion of a hostile country, the vast masses of men required and the abundant means of the North, made the question of supplies one of leading importance in the strategy and operations of the Federal generals. Compared with the Confederate, the Federal soldier may almost be said to have fought at his ease and in comfort.

By December 1, 1862, more than 1,300,000 men had been put in the field by the North, while, it is affirmed, the South had never half that number at once in arms. The entire number of different men in the Southern armies during the whole war is stated at about one third the whole number of its antagonists. The sacrifices of the North were immense and seemed inconceivable, but the devotion of the South to a constantly failing cause was not less honorable to its spirit. It is true that there were many, both North and South, who did not scruple to improve the opportunities offered, during the confusion of war, to enrich themselves at the expense of their government; and many, in the South, sought to avoid a personal share of the fighting after having exerted their influence to promote the desperate collision; yet, as a whole, the Southern people were disposed to sacrifice everything to independence, and the Northern citizens were ready to assume all the burdens required to preserve the Union.

The South displayed much energy, after the loss of the upper and lower Mississippi, of the central Valley and of most of its seaports, by the advances in force into Maryland and Kentucky. The North thought that there was reason enough

for the Confederacy to hold itself fairly beaten; as it would not, the Federal Government determined to subtract the slave element, as far as possible, from the support of the South. The colored race had conducted itself with much discretion, during the conflict, quietly going its laborious way, raising no insurrections and creating no disturbances when nearly all the able bodied whites went to the front. They labored at home, respected the families and interests of their owners, and displayed, generally, their usual docility. This was extremely fortunate for the South, which could thus dispose of all its military force for active warfare, while the negroes raised the supplies for the armies and were employed in great numbers wherever fortifications and earthworks were to be raised.

In September, 1862, it was proposed, by the President, to emancipate the slaves in all the Confederate States on the 1st January, 1863, which was actually proclaimed at that time. The negroes belonging to partisans of the Confederate Government were, therefore, held to be free whenever they came within the Union lines, and were soon enlisted into companies and regiments and employed more or less in army operations, adding considerable strength to the Federal side. This movement gathered force and breadth as it proceeded. Soon, the blacks of the border States were invited into military organizations, with the promise of freedom, by the General Government; the freedom of their families followed, to be succeeded by the final sweeping away of the whole system by the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, soon after the close of the war. The conduct of the blacks as soldiers was as honorable to them and as unexpected to the country and the world as it had been while remaining at home to raise provisions for the Confederate troops. This moderation and good behavior in dangerous crises was afterward rewarded, as a reconstruction measure, by giving them the full privilege of citizenship—to the indignation and embarrassment of the South.

THE GREAT BATTLES IN TENNESSEE.

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During the autumn of 1862, and after the retreat of the Southern army from Kentucky, General Bragg, its commander, lay in Middle Tennessée, not far from Nashville, facing a Federal force under General Rosecrans. On the last. day of the year these two armies came to a trial of strength in the desperate and bloody battle of Murfreesborough, or Stone River, in which the general advantage was on the Confederate side during nearly the whole fight of three days, and victory declared, somewhat indecisively, for the Federals only at the last moment. The Union army and its leaders resolutely refused to consider themselves beaten when that appeared actually the case and held their ground, to be justified in the end. It had the larger number, but more of them had no previous experience in their deadly trade. Both parties remained, through the winter, in the same region, defiantly facing each other, but, on the return of weather suitable for military operations, Bragg withdrew to, and through, Chattanooga, and the battle of Chickamauga, near that place, at the end of summer (September 19 and 20), resulted in the defeat or serious check, of Rosecrans, although Bragg was not able to recover Chattanooga. The conflict continued during the winter in Virginia and in Mississippi, with varying results, the Confederate forces, on the whole, maintaining the most important points, frequently gaining considerable advantages, which they were not strong enough to hold with their dimin-ishing resources and the inexhaustible supplies of the Federal Government.

The great abilities and superior armies of Grant, Sherman. and others at length triumphed at Vicksburg, July 4, 1863, and the whole river was soon after opened to Federal use. The conqueror of Vicksburg, with a considerable part of his army, was, in the autumn, transferred to Chattanooga, where, in November, another great battle was fought, resulting in favor of the Federal forces. But, although the inevitable end seemed apparent enough to the North, the South,

with the most genuine Anglo-Saxon grit, would not see it. The Southwest, away from the Mississippi, was mostly untouched, as yet, by invasion, and the Atlantic coast was still joined to the Valley by lines of railway skirting the eastern and southern base of the Alleghanies. She hoped, to the last, to recover her lost ground, and, in some way, to thrust back the powerful invasion.

The larger features of the war were more concentrated during 1864. At least the antagonists had been schooled by the three years' conflict, and all the desperate valor of a noble race was developed by an opponent worthy of its steel. It required a whole campaign for Sherman to drive the army that had been beaten at Chattanooga to Atlanta, in Georgia, and Grant had not conquered Lee, in Virginia, when he reached the neighborhood of Richmond. Hood, in command of the Southern army, which had disputed every step of the advance from Nashville to Atlanta, in November of this year (1864), suddenly turned back to the starting point. But the superiority of the Federal armies enabled Sherman to pursue his special plans and still detach an adequate force for the protection of Tennessee, and Hood was completely defeated before he had inflicted serious losses in that region.

During all this year, while the bulk of the armies were testing their mutual strength in Virginia and Georgia, under Grant and Sherman, Lee, Bragg, Johnston and Hood, a minor series of conflicts was carried on over almost the whole of the Southern States, both within the Federal and Confederate lines, by detached parties, or small armies, moving with great rapidity. General Price invaded Missouri, General Banks led a Federal expedition up the Red River, in Louisiana. These were both unsuccessful. Mobile was captured and various Federal successes occurred along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Federal raids, or detached operations, into the Southern interior were answered by similar movements of small Confederate forces into Tennessee and Kentucky.

THE LOSS OF THE VALLEY DECIDES THE WAR.

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Washington itself was threatened by the Confederate General Early, and a desperate conflict between him ́and Sheridan was afterward carried on in the Shenandoah Valley, in Virginia, resulting in the definite defeat of Early. Federal power was, on the whole, overwhelming, and only a gallantry that took little account of odds until it had fairly exhausted itself could have carried the conflict through so many campaigns. During the winter of 1864-5 General Sherman-after destroying the shops and material for warlike supplies, which had made Atlanta the most important town in the Confederacy-sent a sufficient force back to Tennessee to confront General Hood, removed his hospitals and extra stores to Chattanooga, and left Atlanta with a strong army, and marched through the heart of the Confederacy, 250 miles, upon Savannah, which had defended itself against all Federal attacks from the sea. His route led him across all the lines of communication by which supplies from the Valley could yet reach the armies in Virginia; his large army of well-trained veterans was hopelessly superior to any obstructions which could be thrown in his way by the South on short notice, and his destruction of public stores and railways was an irreparable disaster for it. Reaching Savannah from the rear he easily captured it, and marched northeastward above Charleston, now almost in ruins from a long Federal bombardment, but which had held out successfully to this time. His operations in its rear led to its evacuation. He continued north, through the center of South and North Carolina, the strength of his army, and the co-operation of Federal forces gathered on the coast at various points, rendering all the opposition which the Confederate authorities could bring against him fruitless.

With all the important lines of communication in the Valley in Federal hands, the close of the contest on the Atlantic could not long be delayed. Cut off from supplies and recruits, the Confederate army daily diminished, while the Federal forces were ever stronger in numbers and re-.