zard's roost. They have a force equal to theirs in their front, who outnumber them in artillery. It is not pos sible to carry the place by assault. Palmer made the attempt to turn it yesterday with Baird's and Cruft's divisions, but was met by an equal force, and in an equally strong position as at Buzzard's roost. After expending nearly all his ammunition, he retired, during the night, to Catoosa platform. Our transportation is poor and limited. and limited. We are not able to carry more than sixty rounds per man. Artillery-horses so poor that General Palmer could bring but sixteen pieces. The country is stripped entirely of subsistence and forage. The enemy's cavalry is much Prisoners taken yesterday report that a portion of Cleburne's division*. . . . I will wait the developments of this day, and advise you further."

superior to ours.

To this, Grant sent the following reply: "It is of the highest importance that the enemy should be held in full belief that an advance into the heart of the South is intended, until the fate of Sherman is fully known. The difficulties of supplies can be overcome by keeping your trains running between Chattanooga and your position. . . ." Thomas, accordingly, remained in force near Dalton, as long as he could supply himself. On the 29th, Grant reported to Halleck: "He is back now to Dalton, where he hopes to be able to haul supplies until the railroad can be completed to him." Schofield could not follow Longstreet further than Strawberry plains, because every step took him from

*The MS. here is imperfect. Probably the words "has returned" should be supplied.

his supplies, while Longstreet was falling back on his.

On the 2d of March, Grant got word through rebel sources of Sherman's success, but not of his return; and, on the 3d of March, Grant was ordered to Washington.

CHAPTER XIV.

Military situation early in 1864-Political situation-Need of one real head to the army-Grant made lieutenant-general-His predecessors in that grade— Action of the government—Grant's quiescence—Instructions to Sherman— Private correspondence between Grant and Sherman-Dispatches from Halleck-Journey to Washington-Arrival-Presentation of commissionSpeeches of President and of Grant.

EARLY in 1864, the civil war in America had reached one of its most important crises. The politi cal and the military situation of affairs were equally grave. The rebellion had assumed proportions that transcend comparison. The Southern people seemed all swept into the current, and whatever dissent had originally existed among them, was long since, to outside apprehension, swallowed up in the maelstrom of events. Ten states resisted with all their force, civil and military, and apparently with the additional armament of unanimity and popular enthusiasm, the whole strength of the national government. New Orleans, the greatest city of the would-be Confederacy, had, indeed, early fallen into the hands of the government; but Mobile, Wilmington, and Charleston, the next three commercial towns of importance, although blockaded and besieged by sea, held out as bravely and as stubbornly as ever. The Mississippi

had been opened to national vessels, though hardly yet to national trade, and the severest blow the rebel lion had sustained was undoubtedly dealt when Vicksburg fell. Still, the snake, if scotched, was not killed; it had been cut violently in twain, but the severed parts retained each a convulsive life, while the more important portion, though shorn of its strength and resources, seemed to have lost none at all of its vitality. Kentucky and Tennessee, although in the possession of national forces, were yet debatable ground, and suffered all the ills of border territory in time of civil war; and Grant, ordered to the command of the entire region between the Mississippi and the Alleghanies, had checked the advance of Bragg, it is true, but even he had not yet driven the great rebel army of the West far beyond the northern boundaries of Georgia; for Johnston, the successor of the unlucky Bragg, still confronted the most formidable force that the government could accumulate in all its Western territory, and Longstreet occasionally threatened to assume the offensive in East Tennessee.

In the Eastern theatre of war, no real progress had been made during three disastrous years. The first Bull Run early taught the nation that it had to contend with skilful, brave, and determined foes. Then came McClellan's labors in the organization of an army, and his sad campaign on the Richmond Peninsula; after this, the still heavier reverses of Pope's career-heavier, because they followed so close on the heels of earlier defeats. Antietam saved the North from the perils of invasion, but, although a positive victory, it had only negative results. Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville were positive enough,

but made terrible drafts on the endurance of the nation, as well as on the life-blood of its soldiers. Gettysburg again stayed the tide of invasion; and, on the soil of the Northern states, a battle was fought, in the third year of the war, on whose result depended, for three long summer days, the fate of the second. city in the land. This hardly seemed like the easy progress that had been anticipated for the national arms. Gettysburg saved Washington and Philadelphia; but even this victory had not resulted in the destruction of Lee; for, in the succeeding January, the rebel chief, with undiminished legions and audacity, still lay closer to the national capital than to Richmond; and Washington was in nearly as great danger as before the first Bull Run.

Halleck, succeeding McClellan in the ostensible command of all the armies, if he really exercised supreme control, had failed. It seemed as if, when successes• came, they were oftener the result of blind courage on the part of the troops, than of brilliant combinations on the part of their commanders; and that the victories of a great general in one theatre of operations were sure to be neutralized by the disasters of an unsuccessful one on the other side of the continent. Success, it was evident, could only come from greater unity of plan and greater concentration of effort. The veriest tyro, or the stupidest critic, could see that all the strength of the national armies must be made coöperative, and that this had never yet been done. The need of one head, of a mastermind, to perceive and to do, to grasp all the varied necessities, to control all the varied operations, to evolve order out of chaos, to make generals and armies and marches and battles all tend to the ac