vetoed by the Federal headquarters and government, whose first and ruling idea was to keep the Army of the Potomac between Lee and Washington. Hooker was thus compelled to follow Lee’s movements. Ewell’s men were raiding unchecked as far north as the Susquehanna, while Hooker was compelled to inactivity before the forces of Hill and Longstreet. The Federal general, within his limitations, acted prudently and skilfully. The Army of the Potomac crossed that river only one day later than Lee, and concentrated at Frederick. But Hooker was no longer trusted by the Washington authorities, and his dispositions were interfered with. Not allowed to control the operations of his own men, the unfortunate general resigned his command on the 28th. He was succeeded by General G. G. Meade, who, besides steadiness and ability, possessed the confidence of Lincoln and Halleck which Hooker had lacked. Meade was thus able to move promptly, Lee was compelled to meet him, and the Army of the Potomac began to take up its position on Pipe Creek, screened by Generals Reynolds and Buford at Gettysburg (q.v.). On the 1st of July the heads of Lee’s columns engaged Buford’s cavalry outposts, and the conflict began. All troops on both sides hurried to the unexpected battlefield, and after a great three days’ battle, the Army of the Potomac emerged at last with a decisive victory. On the 4th, as Pemberton surrendered at Vicksburg, Lee drew off his shattered forces. One third of the Army of northern Virginia and one quarter of the Army of the Potomac remained on the field. Pursuit was not seriously undertaken, and the armies manœuvred back to the old battle-grounds of the Rapidan and the Rappahannock. A war of manœuvre followed, each side being reduced in turn by successive detachments sent to aid Rosecrans and Bragg in the struggle for Tennessee. In October Lee attempted a third Bull Run campaign on the same lines as the second, but Meade’s steadiness foiled him, and he retired to the Rapidan again, where he in turn repulsed Meade’s attempt to surprise him (Mine Run, November 26–28, 1863).
22. Chickamauga.—In the centre Rosecrans and Bragg spent the first six months of the year, as it were glaring at each other. Nothing was done by the main armies, but the far-ranging cavalry raids of the Confederates under J. H. Morgan and other leaders created much excitement, especially “Morgan’s Raid” (June 27–July 26), through Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, which states had hitherto little or no experience of the war on their own soil. At last the Army of the Cumberland advanced. Rosecrans manœuvred his opponent out of one position after another until Bragg was driven back into Chattanooga. These operations were very skilfully conducted by Rosecrans and his second-in-command, Thomas, and, at a trifling cost, advanced the Union outposts to the borders of Georgia. Burnside and the new Army of the Ohio had now cleared east Tennessee and occupied Knoxville (September 2), and meanwhile Rosecrans by a brilliant movement, in which he displayed no less daring in execution than skill in planning, once more manœuvred Bragg out of his position and occupied Chattanooga. But he had to fight to maintain his prize, and in the desperate battle of Chickamauga (q.v.) on the 19th and 20th of September, Bragg, reinforced by Longstreet from Virginia, won a complete victory. Thomas’s defence won him the popular title of the “Rock of Chickamauga” and enabled Rosecrans to draw off his men, but the critical position of the Army of the Cumberland in Chattanooga aroused great alarm.
23. Chattanooga.—Grant was now given supreme command in the west, and the Army of the Tennessee (now under Sherman) and two corps from Virginia under Hooker were hurried by rail to Tennessee. In spite of his good record Rosecrans was deprived of his command. But Thomas, his successor, was one of the greatest soldiers of the war, and Grant’s three generals, all men of great ability, set to work promptly. Hooker defeated Longstreet at Wauhatchie and revictualled Chattanooga (q.v.), and on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of November the three armies attacked Bragg’s position. On the left Sherman made little progress; on the right, however, Hooker and the men from the Potomac army fought and won the extraordinary “Battle above the Clouds” on Lookout Mountain, and on the 25th the Confederate centre on Missionary Ridge was brilliantly stormed by Thomas and the Army of the Cumberland. Grant’s triumph was decisive of the war in the west, and with Burnside’s victory over Longstreet at Knoxville, the struggle for Tennessee was over. Vicksburg, Gettysburg and Chattanooga ended the crisis of the war, which had been at its worst for the Union in this year. Henceforth the South was fighting a hopeless battle.
24. Plan of Campaign for 1864.—Grant, now the foremost soldier in the Federal army, was on the 9th of March 1864 commissioned lieutenant-general and appointed general-in-chief. Halleck, Lincoln and Stanton, the intractable, if energetic, war secretary, now stood aside, and the efforts of the whole vast army were to be directed and co-ordinated by one supreme military authority. Sherman was to command in the west, Grant’s headquarters accompanied Meade and the Army of the Potomac. The general plan was simple and comprehensive. Meade was to “hammer” Lee, and Sherman, at the head of the armies which had been engaged at Chattanooga and Knoxville, was to deal with the other great field army of Confederates under Johnston, and as far as possible gain ground for the Union in the south-east. Sherman’s own plans went farther still, and included an eventual invasion of Virginia itself from the south, but this was not contemplated as part of the immediate programme. Butler with the new Army of the James was to move up that river towards Richmond and Petersburg. Subsidiary forces were to operate on the sea-board, in the Shenandoah Valley and elsewhere. At this time took place the Red River Expedition, which was intended for the subjugation of western Louisiana. The troops of General Banks and the war vessels under Admiral Porter moved up the Red river, and on the 16th of March 1864 reached Alexandria. Skirmishing constantly with the Confederates under Kirby Smith and Taylor, the Federals eventually on the 8th and 9th of April suffered serious reverses at Sabine Cross Roads and Pleasant Hill. Banks thereupon retreated, and, high water in the river having come to an end, the fleet was in the gravest danger of being cut off, until Colonel Bailey suggested, and rapidly carried out, the construction of a dam and weir over which the ships ran down to the lower waters. Eventually the various forces retired to the places whence they had come.
25. The Wilderness Campaign.—Virginia was now destined to be the scene of the bloodiest fighting of the whole war. Grant and Meade, reinforced by Burnside’s IX. Corps to a strength of 120,000 men, crossed the Rapidan on the 4th of May with the intention of attacking Lee’s inner flank, that nearer Richmond. With a bare 70,000 men the Confederate general struck at the flank of Grant’s marching columns in that same Wilderness where Jackson had won his last battle twelve months before. The battle of the Wilderness (q.v.) went on for two days, with little advantage to either side. On his part Grant had lost 18,000 men. Lee had lost fewer, but could ill spare them, and Longstreet had been severely wounded (May 5–6). Grant, astonished perhaps, but here as always resolute, tried again to reach Lee’s right wing, and on the 8th another desperate battle began at Spottsylvania (q.v.) Court House. The fighting on this field lasted ten days, at the end of which Grant had doubled his losses and was as far as ever from success. On the 21st of May, with extraordinary pertinacity, he sent Meade and Burnside once more against the inner flank of the Army of northern Virginia. The action of North Anna ended like the rest, though on this occasion the loss was small. A week later the Federals, again moving to their left, arrived upon the ground on which McClellan had fought two years before, and at Cold Harbor (Porter’s battlefield of Gaines’ Mill) the leading troops of the Army of the James joined the lieutenant-general. Meanwhile the minor armies had come to close quarters all along the line. The Army of the James moved towards Richmond on the same day on which the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan. On the 16th of May Butler fought the indecisive battle of Drury’s Bluff against Beauregard, in consequence of which he had to retire to Bermuda Hundred, whence most of his troops were sent to join Grant. At the same time the Union troops under Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley were defeated at New Market (May 15). General Hunter, who
