twenty-ninth day of May, when his timidity reached its climax. On that day there was a tremendous explosion in the town. Grant and the other generals knew at once that the rebels had fled, and were blowing up their works. But Halleck said, evidently scared out of his wits,

"The enemy will attack us in force to-morrow morning," and he issued an order to that effect, and in the morning he actually drew up his army in battle-array to receive the shock. While he was doing this, most of the rebel army was miles away, running for dear life, and the explosion was the signal of the completion of one of the most thorough and deliberate evacuations on record. Halleck ordered General Logan to advance and intrench, which he did, laughing "in his sleeve" all the while, and his men were using shovels when a squad of Union cavalry had entered the city, and were scouring the forsaken streets. The enemy had been carrying away their property for several weeks. Halleck had given them abundant opportunity to escape, and they had improved it, leaving scarcely a knapsack as a memento of their occupation. An army of seventy thousand men escaped from the foe, whose advance line was within. two hundred yards of him, and the conceited General did not know it!

General Logan said to another officer, "My men shall never dig another ditch for Halleck, unless it is to bury him in."

In July, General Halleck succeeded General McClellan as commander-in-chief of the great Union army, and removed to Washington. A prominent Union officer remarked,

"It is the first time I ever knew an officer promoted for his blunders."

"It is done to take him out of the way, that we may do something," responded another.

Commodore Foote said, "If we could have had our way, we would have destroyed the rebellion in the West within a few months."

In justice to General Halleck it should be said, that he made a concession to General Grant, after he found that Corinth was evacuated.

"After all, General Grant," he said, "you fought the battle of Corinth at Pittsburg Landing."

And yet, he offered to turn over his command to another, who indignantly declined it. Then he telegraphed to the war department, to inquire whether the Government would appoint his successor, or he should turn the department over to the next in command.

The Government replied, "The officer next in command will succeed you," and so General Grant had an opportunity to reduce the fortress at Vicksburg. But every loyal reader will agree with the writer, that Halleck's treatment of Grant was prompted by his conceit and jealousy.

General Grant turned his attention to Vicksburg at once. But first it was necessary that he should drive out or destroy the rebel forces, which might follow and annoy him there. The city of Memphis was already in his hands, having been captured by the gunboats, and he removed his head-quarters to Jackson, Mississippi, leaving General Rosecrans in command at Corinth. And here General Grant gave striking proof of his military genius.

He was satisfied that the rebel General Price designed to attack Corinth, and that certain movements in another direction were feints. He laid his plans accordingly. He would attack Price at Iuka, which would be the signal for Van Dorn to move on Corinth.

M

A force, under his Generals, Hurlburt and Ord, was sent where they could cut Van Dorn's army to pieces on his retreat. His plan assumed that he should whip Price, and Rosecrans would whip Van Dorn,—all of which transpired according to his programme. He never planned for defeat; and here was one of the secrets of his success.

General Grant was now ready to move on Vicksburg. We add, however, that when the enemy evacuated Corinth, the young colonel of the Second Michigan Cavalry made a dash upon the rear of five thousand ́rebel horse, and followed them twenty miles, capturing many prisoners, although his own troops numbered but two thousand. Subsequently General Grant sought him out, and recommended him for a brigadier to the war department. The young hero was Phil Sheridan.

Some time after the battle of Corinth, General Grant was riding past a dwelling with his staff, when the report of a gun was heard in the house, and a mother and daughter came rushing out, followed by a Union soldier, who had attempted to violate their persons, and fired his gun to scare them. Leaping from his horse, the General seized the miscreant's gun, and with one blow over his head with the breech, he laid him prostrate.

"I guess you have killed him, General," remarked. Rawlins, on looking at the fellow.

"If I have, it has only served him right,” replied Grant.

He was only stunned, however. In a short time he recovered, and was put under arrest.

XIV.

ON TO VICKSBURG.

GENERAL GRANT brought his army under the strictest discipline. By order he limited the baggage of each soldier, his own with all the rest. His baggage was so light that a soldier jocosely remarked,—

"The General's baggage consists of a pipe and toothbrush."

He entirely stopped depredations by making the soldiers responsible for all property taken, and subtracting the same from their pay-roll. By such rigid regulations his one hundred and thirty thousand men were disciplined into one of the best armies ever known.

Grant's first movement towards the capture of Vicksburg was a master stroke. In a speech at St. Louis, General Sherman said,

"Grant moved direct on Pemberton, commander of Vicksburg, while I moved from Memphis, and a smaller force, under General Washburne, struck directly for Grenada; and the first thing Pemberton knew, the depôt of his supplies was almost in the grasp of a small cavalry force, and he fell back in confusion, and gave us the Tallahatchie without a battle. The credit of this plan, which was as brilliantly conceived as executed, belongs to Grant."

General Sherman was sent with his command by water, in advance of Grant, who was to unite and co

operate with him in the attack on Vicksburg. But the disaster to Union arms at Holly Springs, in consequence of the inefficiency of Murphy, the commander of the post, delayed General Grant, sadly interfering with his plans. Sherman reached Vicksburg, and made two assaults upon the works, in which he was repulsed. But the movement disclosed the great strength of the works.

Vicksburg is located on a bluff, or hill, on the east side of the Mississippi, opposite a remarkable bend in the river. It has sometimes been called a "city of a hundred hills," because there are so many hills within and without it. The enemy, appreciating the importance of keeping possession of the Mississippi, had spent time and money lavishly in fortifying it. Every conceivable means of defence was adopted. Eight miles of batteries swept the river, so that Gen. John C. Pemberton, the commander, had reason to say,—

"No gunboat can pass without my consent."

He considered the place absolutely impregnable. He had not the least fear that any force the U. S. Government could send against it, could reduce the works. He felt perfectly secure. Nor were there wanting Union officers and civilians who regarded the proposed assault upon Vicksburg extremely unwise. But General Grant entertained the Western view of the case, that opening the Mississippi, from St. Louis to the Gulf, would be substantially the end of the Rebellion. And conviction alone was enough to enlist all the powers of his being in the momentous enterprise.

Of his one hundred and thirty thousand troops, he took fifty thousand on the expedition against Vicksburg, locating the remainder where they could render him essential aid, and, at the same time, be of the most