MORE ABOUT THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
=312. Union Defeat at Chancellorsville.=--Now let us return to our
narrative of a few of the prominent military operations of the war. In
May, 1863, the army of the Potomac, under General Hooker, moved
southward from Washington. At Chancellorsville it was met by a
Confederate force under Generals Lee and Jackson. The battle lasted two
days, and was disastrous to the Union arms; in fact, the worst defeat of
the war. It marked the zenith of Confederate success. In this battle
"Stonewall" Jackson, so called from his splendid firmness, one of the
ablest of the Southern generals, was mortally wounded.
[Illustration: "STONEWALL" JACKSON.]
=313. The Mighty Struggle at Gettysburg.=--General Lee, proud of this
success, now resolved to lead his army into the North. Sweeping past
Washington and across Maryland, he pushed up into Pennsylvania, the
whole country around being terrified at his approach, especially
Baltimore and Philadelphia, both of which cities were threatened. Lee
had now eighty thousand soldiers, the finest army the South ever
possessed. The army of the Potomac, under the command of General Meade,
whom Grant called the right man in the right place, followed closely.
The two defiant armies met at Gettysburg, where occurred the most
momentous battle ever fought on this continent. It lasted three days,
July 1-3, 1863. The first day's fighting ended in favor of the
Confederates. On the second day their desperate efforts to drive the
Union forces from their positions were repelled, but with an enormous
loss on each side.
[Illustration: GENERAL MEADE.]
On the third day came the final test. The brave Confederate General
Pickett led many thousands of soldiers over an open plain in a most
desperate charge to break the Union center. On, on they came, their
ranks now torn through and through by Union shot and shell, but still on
they charged. Drawing nearer, up they rushed to the Union line with the
familiar Southern yell, and with frantic fury dashed upon our firm-set
ranks. Our men wavered with the mighty shock and for a moment fell back,
but instantly rallied with the Union cheer.
In the furious onset and the hand-to-hand fight, friend and foe fell by
thousands. But the charging battalions were shattered, crushed, driven
back, melting away under the concentrated fire, and only some few
fragments of all that vast column straggled back over the field of
death.
[Illustration: GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE.]
Lee was baffled, defeated; the Union was safe. The invaders, with that
vast army that came with stately pride, went back to Virginia with
sorrowing memories of the direst disaster of the war. Never again did a
large Confederate force hazard a march into the North. After Gettysburg
there was little hope of Confederate triumph.
=314. Memorials of the Victory.=--Gettysburg was a costly victory. Over
that broad area of the three days' battles, strewn through wood and
meadow, on field and hill, lay the bodies of thousands of soldiers.
One-third of Lee's entire army, and about a fourth of the Union forces,
had been killed or wounded. The arena of fiercest fighting in the third
day's final charge is now marked by a suitable monument, which bears
upon a bronze tablet an inscription that indicates the historical
importance of the spot.
Upon opposite columns are also inscribed the names of the officers who
led the surging columns of gray, and the names of those officers who
held firm the impregnable walls of blue.
The whole field of battle, covering several square miles, is dotted with
hundreds of similar memorials of many varieties. These monuments have
been erected year after year by the survivors or by their friends. They
indicate the positions held by regiments, brigades, and divisions, where
desperate charges and equally desperate repulses occurred, or where
gallant officers fell.
=315. Lincoln's Masterly Address at Gettysburg.=--In November, 1863, the
central portion of the battlefield was set apart as a National Cemetery
and dedicated with solemn ceremonies. The most important of these was
the notably eloquent address by President Lincoln, which has passed into
history as an event hardly less memorable than the great conflict
itself. Perhaps in no language, ancient or modern, are any words found
more comprehensive and eloquent than this brief speech.
Time has tested the strength of this short, simple address. After more
than a quarter of a century it is still as familiar as household words.
[Illustration: GENERAL U. S. GRANT.]
=316. Success of General Grant in the West.=--Let us now read about a few
of the great events of the war in the West during the first half of the
year 1863. Here General Grant was the central figure of important
military operations. He had already become prominent by the brilliant
campaigns we have mentioned. His remarkable career furnishes one of the
many examples of great men coming up from obscure and unpromising
conditions of life.
[Illustration: MAP OF MILITARY OPERATIONS IN THE WEST.]
He was born in Ohio in 1822, and received a military education at West
Point. He was a successful officer in the Mexican War, having been
engaged in nearly all the battles of the war, where he manifested
conspicuous bravery. Returning from Mexico, he engaged a while in
farming, but with discouraging results. Evidently it was not his
vocation.
When the Civil War opened, Grant was employed at a small salary in his
father's leather store in Galena, Illinois. He at once offered the
governor his services, and was appointed a colonel of an Illinois
regiment. He rose rapidly to conspicuous positions.
=317. Capture of Vicksburg.=--General Grant, after defeating the
Confederates at the battle of Shiloh, and driving them south to Corinth,
followed them to Vicksburg. This was a stronghold from which they seemed
to defy every effort to dislodge them.
The city stands on a high bluff some two hundred feet above the
Mississippi, and as there were heavy batteries all along the river front
and on the hillsides, Grant could not attack the city with his gunboats.
On the north there were miles of swamps and creeks, so that he could not
approach on that side. On the east the city was heavily fortified with
cannon.
President Lincoln and the country expected General Grant to capture
Vicksburg. What could he do? Witness his superb generalship!
He first protected against cannon shot a number of gunboats and steamers
by means of bales of hay, and planned to run them past eight miles of
batteries one dark night in April. This movement was so perilous that
officers would not order their men to go, but called for volunteers. So
many were eager to go that lots were drawn for a chance. One soldier
refused one hundred dollars for his place.
Soon as the watchful Confederates sighted the first boat of the grim
procession, they opened a deafening cannonade, and started a series of
bonfires that lighted up all the miles of that voyage of death. Some of
the transports were destroyed, but enough got through to answer the
general's purpose.
Next Grant ferried his army across the river some miles below Vicksburg,
and fought and defeated General Pemberton's troops, which had moved down
to meet him. Then, learning that General Johnston was coming to attack
him, he marched up between the two armies. On his east side he met
Johnston's army and defeated it. Thence he turned west and drove
Pemberton again, and the next day routed him once more and drove his
entire army into Vicksburg.
Commodore Porter's gunboats now threw huge shells into the doomed city
from the river and Grant's army bombarded it on the east. It was an
awful siege. No building was safe. The people lived in caves dug in the
sides of the hills. Food was so scarce that mules, cats, dogs, and rats
were devoured. At last, after seven weeks of siege, Pemberton, on July
4, surrendered his entire army of about thirty thousand men, the largest
force captured during the war.
These two great victories, at Gettysburg and at Vicksburg, one in the
East, the other in the West, both won at the same time, gave new hope
to the Union cause. The Confederacy was at last cut in two, for the
Mississippi River was open in its entire length, and its waters, in Mr.
Lincoln's words, "flowed unvexed to the sea."
From this eventful Fourth of July in 1863 the strength of the
Confederacy began to decay. There was little hope for its final success
after this time. All its future contests only delayed the inevitable
end.
=318. Two Other Important Victories in the West.=--In September occurred
the severe battle of Chickamauga, where the Union army would probably
have been utterly defeated but for the valor of General Thomas, who thus
won for himself the name of the "Rock of Chickamauga." Late in November
the Union army was shut in at Chattanooga by the ever alert
Confederates, and was relieved only by General Grant's skillful planning
and hard fighting.
[Illustration: GENERAL THOMAS.]
This battle was fought on a cold, drizzly day. The fog, settling on the
valley and sides of Lookout Mountain, up which our brave boys climbed,
covered the lower part of the advancing army so that only the upper
lines were visible. This brilliant victory is popularly known as "the
Battle above the Clouds." These movements ended the army operations of
1863.
=319. Sherman's Famous March to the Sea.=--The year 1864 saw two great
movements, both planned by General Grant, who had now been called by
President Lincoln to come to Washington and take control of all the
armies of the Republic. One was his own advance against Richmond, and
the other General Sherman's famous "March to the Sea."
[Illustration: GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN.]
General W. T. Sherman, a brilliant officer and General Grant's dear
comrade and lifelong friend, had driven his opponents southward and
captured Atlanta. General Hood then very boldly but injudiciously led a
Confederate army up to Nashville, where General Thomas attacked and
utterly defeated him.
Meanwhile Sherman had begun his celebrated march to the sea. Having
burned the mills, foundries, and workshops at Atlanta which had been of
great value to the Confederates, he started in November with an army of
sixty thousand on a three-hundred-mile expedition to the Atlantic! They
marched on three and sometimes four parallel roads, foraging on the
country, destroying railroads, burning bridges, and devastating a belt
of territory from forty to sixty miles wide. Our army was followed by
thousands of negroes, enjoying their new freedom.
In December Sherman reached the sea and telegraphed to President Lincoln
the capture of Savannah as a Christmas present! Resting there, he then
marched his conquering legions north, through both Carolinas, up to
Goldsboro, having met and defeated Johnston's army at several points
along the way. He was now able to aid General Grant, whose campaign
against Richmond we must now consider.
=320. Grant's Advance on Richmond; Lee's Surrender at Appomattox.=--Early
in May, Grant had started with a hundred and twenty thousand men on his
advance against Richmond. He pushed his work with great vigor, fighting
almost daily, but after every battle flanking Lee's right, and thus
working constantly southward. It was a series of bloody battles, and
the slaughter was enormous; but such is war. He continued slowly
advancing all summer, and in the fall of 1864 began the siege of
Richmond.
Finally, in April, 1865, General Sheridan had cut the last of the
railroads supplying the Confederate capital. Then with Grant's army on
one side and Sheridan's on the other, the Confederacy quickly collapsed.
Jefferson Davis fled and a panic seized upon the people in the doomed
city, while fire and havoc ran riot. The Union army soon marched in and
restored order.
[Illustration: GENERAL SHERMAN ON HIS MARCH TO THE SEA.]
One week later Lee surrendered his whole army at Appomattox. General
Grant treated his fallen foes with great generosity, requiring only the
oath of officers and men not to fight further against the United
States. The victorious general permitted all the men to keep their
horses, to enable them, as he said, "to do their spring plowing on their
farms."
=321. The Story of Sheridan's Famous Ride.=--Read's stirring poem,
"Sheridan's Ride," has always been a favorite, for it records in verse
the gallant deed of one of the most brilliant generals in the war for
the Union. In the early fall of 1864 Grant sent General Sheridan with a
large force of cavalry to lay waste the Shenandoah Valley. Sheridan did
the work so well that it was said, "If a crow wants to fly down the
valley, he must carry his provisions with him."
[Illustration: GENERAL SHERIDAN.]
The story runs as follows:--
One morning in October the Confederates approached under cover of a fog
and surprised the Union forces at Cedar Creek and put them to flight.
Sheridan was then at Winchester, twenty miles away, slowly riding back
to join his army. A messenger met him with the bad news. On his famous
black horse he dashed forward at full speed down that "good broad
highway, as with eagle flight," towards the line of battle. As he came
nearer he met the first of the fugitives and rallied them with fierce
and forcible words. At once they were as eager to fight again as they
had been ready to fly.
A brave nucleus of the army which had not shared in the surprise was
fighting with determined pluck to prevent disaster from becoming
disgrace. Men said, "Oh for one hour of Sheridan!" All at once a
deafening cheer was heard above the roar of musketry and artillery as
the tired men recognized the long-looked-for Sheridan. The news flashed
from brigade to brigade along the front with telegraphic speed. As the
gallant general, cap in hand, dashed along the retreating lines, a
continuous cheer burst from the whole army.
The entire aspect of affairs seemed changed in a moment. Further retreat
was no longer thought of. "This retreat must be stopped!" shouted
Sheridan to his officers as he galloped down the lines. The line of
battle was speedily re-formed; the retreating army turned its face to
the foe.
The ranks of the Confederates swayed and broke everywhere before the
charge of the Union cavalry and the impetuous advance of the infantry.
They were completely defeated, with the loss of many prisoners, and
nearly all of their guns.
Sheridan's ride to the front, October 19, 1864, has passed into history
as one of the most thrilling events that have ever given interest to a
battle scene. Stripped of all poetic gloss, the result achieved by
Sheridan's superb generalship, after reaching his shattered army on the
field of Cedar Creek, still stands, with few if any parallels in
history, as an illustration of the magnetic influence of one man over
many, and as an example of snatching a great victory from an appalling
defeat.
[Illustration: SHERIDAN RALLYING HIS TROOPS AT CEDAR CREEK.]
=322. Death of Lincoln.=--Wild was the delight of the country when peace
came. There were public meetings, processions, bonfires, every possible
display of universal joy!
Suddenly, like a total eclipse at noonday, came the darkness of a great
sorrow. Abraham Lincoln, the great and good President, whose heart had
bled for the nation's suffering, who had never held a trace of bitter
feeling towards the South, was shot down by an assassin!
Instantly the nation was plunged into the deepest sorrow; joy ended in
grief, delight was turned to mourning. Ninety thousand Union soldiers
had been slain, but this last sacrifice overshadowed all. Never before
was a great nation shrouded in a sorrow so deep. Thousands mourned, as
for the loss of a personal friend.
The people hardly realized till his death the greatness of this man, the
hero of the mighty struggle by which the Union was saved. From that day
to this, the admiration and love, not only of the nation but of all
mankind, have been increasing for the great and kind-hearted man, the
wise leader, the blameless President,--Abraham Lincoln.
=323. The Cost of the War.=--The cost of the four years' war was something
tremendous. At the close of the strife the total debt was about three
thousand millions of dollars! This, however, was but a small part of the
loss.
The cost in human life can never be estimated in money. The area fought
over was so large that there was fighting somewhere almost every day!
The number of battles, great and small, was more than two thousand! The
total Union loss of men killed in battle and of those who died of wounds
and disease was not less than three hundred and sixty thousand. The
number of enlisted soldiers on the Union side was over two and a half
millions.
=324. Grand Review of Troops at Washington.=--At the close of the war a
grand review of Union troops was held at Washington. These comprised the
army of the Potomac, commanded by General Meade in person, and Sherman's
army fresh from its march to the sea. These battle-scarred veterans,
perhaps one-fifth of all the Union soldiers who had tramped and fought
for years, now passed in review, bearing aloft the tattered and
shot-torn flags around which they had rallied on many a battlefield. The
two days were beautiful and the sight was superb.
The National Capital was full of strangers in holiday dress, and every
house was decorated with flags. For two days the two armies marched in
close column around the Capitol, down Pennsylvania Avenue, past the
President and cabinet, who occupied a large stand prepared for the
occasion in front of the White House. On the second day it took six
hours and a half for Sherman's magnificent army of sixty-five thousand
sunburnt veterans to march in solid columns in review before the
President.
This grand review was a fitting conclusion to the war. The million men
who were still in arms at the close of the war, old comrades of camp and
field, shook hands and parted, each to his home, where mother or sister
or wife or children or other dear ones awaited the long-absent soldier.
=325. The Country after the War.=--The war proved beyond all question that
the American Republic is a nation, not a league, and it rid it also of
human slavery. It took, of course, a long time for the bitter feeling on
both sides to die away. More than a generation has passed since the
great Civil War desolated our fair land. The people of to-day have
little cause to recall its sufferings and horrors.
How dear to the hearts of the American people are the familiar
ceremonies of Memorial Day! What more impressive object lesson could our
children have than to see the gray-haired veterans marching with thinner
ranks and more faltering steps, on this sacred anniversary!