The progress of the war for the past year had, upon the whole, been favorable to the Union cause but the Confederate armies were still formidable, and had won some important victories. One of the greatest battles of the war was fought at Chickamauga on the 19th and 20th of September, 1863, where the Union army under General Rosecrans, had been beaten by the Confederates under General Bragg, with a loss of more than 18,000 men. The redeeming feature of this bloody conflict was the magnificent fight made by the right wing of our army under General Rosecrans with the main body had been driven in confusion from the field. General Rosecrans was soon afterward relieved of command, and was succeeded by General Thomas. On the 11th of October General Grant, who assumed command in person, reached Chattanooga and in November won the brilliant victories of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, in which he captured more than 6,000 prisoners and forty pieces of artillery, after inflicting upon the enemy a loss of 3,000 killed and wounded. In Louisiana our army under General Banks was led to a disastrous defeat in the Red River campaign, through the incompetency of the commanders, notwithstanding the brilliant fighting of the Iowa regiments in his army. Banks lost about 5,000 men, and a large part of his artillery, in this campaign, and what little reputation he had as a military officer.
The Army of the Potomac, under Meade, had accomplished nothing since the Battle of Gettysburg, and was still lying idle on the banks of the Rapidan, watching Lee. At last, the patience of the country became exhausted over the long continued inaction of that great army, and congress took radical action in the premises. The Administration felt grateful to General Meade for the victory at Gettysburg an the country shared this feeling, although there was a general conviction in the North that he had neglected to reap the full fruits of that victory by the ex-
