Battle of

short time they were defeated. Sheridan had gone to Washington and was then at Winchester, some miles away. HearCedar Creek, ing the cannonade, he galloped to the battle field. October 19, Meeting his men in flight, he stopped them, saying, 1864. "Face the other way, boys; we will go and recover our camps!" With marvelous skill Sheridan went about re-forming his lines and infusing his own spirit into the army. From the moment of Sheridan's arrival the whole current of the movement was changed. The men threw up their hats and leaped and danced for joy. In a few hours Sheridan had the troops again in fighting trim, and in the afternoon he led them against the enemy. Early was not only defeated, but thoroughly routed, and his army was practically destroyed; and thus ended the war in the Shenandoah Valley.

General Grant, on assuming command in the east, had planned for Sherman a campaign against Atlanta, Georgia, an important railroad center and base of military supplies. To carry out this plan Sherman had to penetrate the heart of the Confederacy and cope with the army of J. E. Johnston, which had spent the winter at Dalton. Preliminary to this great move, a portion of Sherman's army joined with that of Banks and with the fleet of Admiral Porter in an expedition up the Red River. Several severe battles were fought on this expedition, but in the end it played only a small part in the general plan.

The direct line from Chattanooga to Atlanta is only a hundred miles, but the country is rugged, and Johnston was a vigilant, able commander and had sixty-five thousand men in his army. Sherman's army numbered over one hundred thousand, and was in three parts under Thomas, J. B. McPherson, and John M. Schofield." Of this force Sherman, as he progressed, had to leave many to guard his line of supplies to Nashville. Johnston, on the other hand, could keep his entire army with him and use the whole when needed in battle. Sherman began this great march from Chattanooga on the day after Grant entered the Wilderness. Johnston came out of Dalton and

1 Sheridan's "Memoirs," Vol. II, p. 81.

2 Davies's "Life of Sheridan," p. 185.

3 It was the three armies of the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Ohio combined.

SHERMAN MOVES TOWARD ATLANTA

759

intrenched his army at Resaca. Here Sherman stood before him on the 13th of May. For two days there was heavy fighting, but Sherman refrained from a direct attack. His maneuvers, however, were such as to force Johnston to abandon his position and retreat southward. Sherman followed, and the two armies, both moving toward Dallas, met at a little church called New Hope, where a considerable battle was fought, neither army gaining great advantage.

By the end of May each. army had lost about ten thousand men. Sherman was nearing his goal; but he found in Johnston a master strategist. There was now heavy skirmishing and artillery firing nearly every day. On the 14th of June General Polk was killed. While standing with Generals Johnston and Hardee on the crest of Pine Mountain, viewing the field through a glass, he was struck squarely in the breast by a cannon ball, and his body was torn to pieces. As a youth, Polk had graduated at West Point; he then studied theology, and for twenty

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Thattanooga
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years before the war he was Episcopal bishop of Louisiana.

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Atlanta

Bormay & Co., N. Y.

The last week of June found Johnston strongly intrenched on Kenesaw Mountain, and here, for the first time in the campaign, Sherman decided to make a front attack on his works. Kenesaw The attempt was a foolish one and must be classed with Mountain, Pickett's charge at Gettysburg and Grant's at Cold June 27, 1864. Harbor. And the result was the same: Sherman lost over two thousand men and won nothing. General Daniel McCook was among the killed. Sherman made no more such blunders. He again resorted to his flanking tactics. On the 17th of July he led his army across the Chattahoochee River within a few miles. of Atlanta, and on the same day Jefferson Davis made the great

Hood succeeds

mistake of dismissing Johnston because he had "failed to check the advance of the enemy," and placing General John B. Hood in com mand. The change was a happy one for the Union army; for Hood, though a bold and fearless fighter, Johnston. was no match as a tactician to the masterly Johnston. Three days after receiving the command Hood left his intrenchments and offered battle in the open field at Peachtree Creek. He was driven back by Hooker with heavy loss. On the 22d Hood again made an attack, and on this day the battle became general all along the lines. Hood was thoroughly defeated, losing probably eight thousand men, while Sherman lost less than half that number. But the Union loss was very great, nevertheless, for General McPherson was killed. He was riding through a wood almost alone when a sharpshooter's bullet pierced his brain and his horse galloped back riderless. McPherson was one of the ablest commanders in the army. He was the only man whom Grant on going east placed in the same class with Sherman.

Battle near
Atlanta.

Another battle, known as the battle of Ezra Church, took place on the 28th of July, and Hood was again defeated, with a loss six times as great as that of Sherman. A month more was spent in maneuvering, in raiding with cavalry, and in tightening the coils about Atlanta, where Hood had taken refuge. Finding that he could hold the city no longer, Hood escaped with his army on the night of September 1, and next day Sherman entered and took possession. The campaign had been four months in duration, and the Federal loss in killed, wounded, and missing was about thirty-two thousand. The Confederate loss was probably thirty-five thousand.

While Sherman was maneuvering around Atlanta, Farragut won his famous naval victory in Mobile Bay. This was the most important harbor on the gulf coast, and next to Charleston,' the most important on the entire Confederate coast. Here the Confederate blockade runners found a retreat when nearly all other ports were closed to them. The closing of this port was determined on, and Admiral Farragut was intrusted with the perilous task. For months he was preparing and waiting for a land force to cooperate with him. At length the land force arrived under General Gordon Granger, and was

1 The summer before had witnessed a determined but unsuccessful effort to capture Charleston, South Carolina, guarded by General Beauregard. General Gilmore and Admiral Dahlgren led the expedition. They captured Fort Wagner on Morris Island, after a long and terrific siege, and reduced Fort Sumter to ruins, but they failed to capture Charleston.

FARRAGUT AT MOBILE

761

Mobile Bay,

landed on Dauphin Island in the mouth of Mobile Bay. The naval battle took place on August 5. Two forts, Gaines and Morgan, guarded the main entrance of the bay, while within the bay lay a line of sunken torpedoes and beyond these a Confederate fleet of gunboats and the powerful ram Tennessee, comAugust, 1864. manded by Admiral Buchanan. Farragut had a fleet of four ironclads and some other vessels. That he might not fall to the deck, if shot, Farragut had himself tied to the mast of his flagship, the Hartford, and the fleet steamed into the harbor amid a storm of shot and shell from the two forts and the opposing fleet. One of the Union vessels, the Tecumseh, was wrecked by a torpedo, and sank with one hundred and thirteen men on board.1 The forts were soon silenced, and the battle with the Confederate fleet was short and furious. Two of the Confederate gunboats were soon destroyed, a third fled into shallow water and escaped. The Tennessee made a brave fight against the whole Union fleet, but at last a fifteen-inch solid shot pierced her armor, and she surrendered. The two forts soon afterward surrendered to Granger; and thus ended the career of the blockade runners in Mobile Bay. The city of Mobile at the head of the bay, however, with its guarding forts, remained in the hands of the Confederates for many months longer. It was surrendered to a Union army of forty thousand men under General Canby in April, 1865.

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Politics, like the poor, is always with us. In the midst of the great war came a presidential election. The risk of changing the whole policy of the government at such a time, when ultimate military victory seemed in sight, was not relished by the friends of the Union and the enemies of slavery. But the civic campaign had its compensations; it was some relief for the great public for a season to take its eyes from the dreadful scenes of carnage, and to witness the familiar scene of the battle of the ballots. In view of the

1 A remarkable incident occurred at the sinking of the Tecumseh. There was a narrow ladder, the only possible means of escape. When the vessel was about to sink, Captain Craven, her commander, and his pilot met at the foot of this ladder. The pilot stepped aside that the captain might go up first; but the captain said, "After you, pilot," and stepped back. The pilot then ran up the ladder to the deck, and was saved. But he was the last; the ship sank, and the chivalrous Captain Craven went down with his crew and was lost.

world's present estimate of Abraham Lincoln it seems strange that within his own party there was a powerful opposition to his renomination to the presidency in 1864. But such was the case. Among Lincoln's opposers were such leaders as Horace Greeley, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Ward Beecher, Thaddeus Stevens, and no doubt a majority of the senators and representatives in Congress. The choice of the opposing faction was Mr. Chase, the secretary of the treasury. Chase was an all-round leader and had proved himself a great financier. In January, 1864, a committee of prominent Republicans issued a circular, known as the "Pomeroy Circular," named from the chairman, Senator Pomeroy of Kansas, attempting to show that it were better for the country if Chase instead of Lincoln be chosen President. The ground of objection to Lincoln was that he was too slow and too conservative in dealing with the rebellion and with the slavery question, nor was his plan of reconstruction, to be noticed later, pleasing to the leaders in Congress. No doubt the President was disturbed by this movement, but his outward calm was unbroken. With admirable magnanimity he said concerning the Chase movement: "I have determined to shut my eyes, so far as possible, to everything of the sort. . . . If he (Chase) becomes President, all right. I hope we may never have a worse man." Lincoln's strength lay with the masses of the people, who had learned to trust him and to recognize his great ability in managing the war. Chase was anxious for the nomination, and, with well-feigned reluctance and with the usual coyness, gave his name to the movement. When, however, the Republicans of the legislature of his own state, Ohio, held a caucus and declared for Lincoln, Chase thought it wise to withdraw from the canvass, and did so. Other states followed the example of Ohio, and long before the convention it was a foregone conclusion that Lincoln would be renominated.

But there was in the Republican party an extremely radical faction that refused to abandon its hostility to Lincoln, and when his nomination was seen to be assured, this faction called a convention to meet at Cleveland, Ohio, to name its own candidate. It nominated John C. Frémont, who a few days later came out with his letter of acceptance, in which he denounced the administration, and hinted that he would retire from the contest if the coming Republican convention would select any candidate other than Lincoln. The Republican convention met in Baltimore on the 7th of 1 Nicolay and Hay, Vol. VIII, p. 316.