alluded to himself as having directed these lieutenants on their respective paths to victory.

The people, however, began to see that he held

General Lee's army in check, while the troops of his subordinates were penetrating into the heart of the Confederacy from different directions. General Lee, who

possessed the noblest qualities of human nature in the highest development, and who had followed the fortunes of his native State of Virginia into the Rebellion in obedience to his conscientious convictions, had done everything--save succeed. Although hampered at times by ambitious civilians who sought to direct military operations, he had won the confidence of the Confederate troops and the devoted love of the Southern people. But at last he was forced to see that Virginia was the only Confederate State in which resistance walked erect, and that his legions there, worn out with watching, were slowly melting away. Steady, ceaseless fighting had thinned the Confederate ranks. There were no more men, even the youngest or the oldest of the land, to take their places. General Lee and his able lieutenants had been out-manoeuvred, out-marched, and out-generaled, while hard knocks and incessant blows were daily dimin ishing their respective commands. They realized, and sadly realized, General Grant's idea: "To hammer continuously against the armed force of the enemy and his resources until, by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him but submission."

CHAPTER XIII.

THE APPROACHING end of THE WAR-SHERIDAN'S VICTORY AT FIVE FORKS-FINAL ASSAULT ON THE DEFENSES OF RICHMOND-A SAD SUNDAY AT THE CONFEDERATE CAPITAL-NEWS OF THE UNION ADVANCES-OCCUPATION OF RICHMOND-THE LAST BATTLE-THE SURRENDER-THE WAR ENDED-PREPARATIONS FOR PEACE

HE brave Confederates who defended Richmond

TH

saw at last that the end was at hand. They could no longer be deceived by verbose platitudes about foreign intervention or strategic purposes, and they saw the hydra-headed foe approaching on every hand. For four long years they had fought for their hearths and homes with a bravery that had elicited the admiration of their opponents, and they had believed in the ability of the South to work out her own oraclethrough blood and hardships, perhaps even ruin—but still to establish their Confederacy as a Nation "with slavery as its corner-stone."

On the 29th of March, 1865, General Lee made a desperate attack upon the right of General Grant's lines, which was at first successful, but the Union troops. rallied, and not only regained their lost ground and guns, but captured nearly two thousand prisoners. General Grant then promptly made a counter-advance from his left, which was successful, nearly a thousand more Confederates being captured. The decisive moment for the final struggle had now arrived, and General Grant felt almost certain that the Union armies could not only

capture Richmond, but, what was of greater importance, defeat General Lee and compel him to surrender, thus ending the war.

Later on the same morning General Grant wired a despatch to General Sheridan, informing him that the Union line was unbroken from the Appomattox to Dinwiddie, and saying: "I feel now like ending the matter, if possible to do so, before going back." The next morning General Sheridan, reinforced with the Fifth Army Corps, audaciously attacked General Lee's right at Five Forks, carried the Confederate intrenchments by assault, and captured six thousand prisoners and several pieces of artillery.

When General Grant received the tidings of this glorious victory, he issued orders for all the siege guns and mortars along his line to open fire, and to continue the bombardment of the Confederate strongholds until early the next morning, when a general assault was to be made.

At four o'clock on the morning of Sunday, April 2d, 1865, the word "Forward!" was given and the different Union commands advanced in an impetuous torrent of war, billow after billow of armed men, inspired by the certainty of victory, sweeping the outposts before them amid a tornado of shot and the roar of artillery. The energetic movements of the assailants, the impetuosity with which their serried columns carried earthwork after earthwork, and their ceaseless fusillades paralyzed the disheartened Confederates.

That Sunday morning was a sad day in Richmond, as we are told by one who was there. The churches were crowded, and plainly dressed women-most of them in mourning-passed into their pews with pale, wan faces, on which grief and anxiety had both set their handwrit

ing. There were few men, and most of these came in noisily upon crutches, or worn with fever. In the midst of the services at the Rev. Dr. Hoge's church, a mes

senger entered softly, and, advancing to Jefferson Davis, the President of the moribund Confederacy, handed him a telegram. Noiselessly, and with no show of emotion, Mr. Davis left the church, followed by a member of his