alone saved the Army of the Cumberland from destruction, Thomas was very justly selected as the successor of General Rosecrans, when on the 19th of October it was determined to relieve the latter. On the 27th of the same month he was made a brigadier-general in the regular army. Faithful over all things and free from all petty desires, when Sherman, his junior in years, in experience, in commission, and at no remote period his subordinate, was elevated to the command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, Thomas yielded a ready acquiescence in the selection, and a thorough, efficient, and essential co-operation in all the plans of his new superior. It is characteristic of Thomas, that in the twenty-five years that have elapsed since his graduation he has had but two short leaves of absence, one in 1848, and one in 1860, and has never been on favored duty of kind. In his most marked traits, Thomas is the antithesis of Sherman, his habitual repose of mind and temper being, perhaps, only less strongly marked than Sherman's electric restlessness.

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James Birdseye McPherson was born in Sandusky County, Ohio, on the 14th of November, 1828, entered the Military Academy towards the close of his twenty-first year, in June, 1849, graduated at the head of the same class with Schofield, and on the 1st of July, 1853, was appointed a brevet secondlieutenant, and assigned to the corps of engineers. By regular promotion, he attained the grades of second-lieutenant, on the December, 1854, first-lieutenant, December 13, 1858, and captain, August 6, 1861. Upon the expiration of his graduating furlough, he was stationed at West Point as assistant instructor of practical engineering, and remained there until September, 1854, when he was detailed as assistant engineer of the harbor defences of New York. From January to July, 1857, he was in charge of the construction of Fort Delaware, in the Delaware River. In December, 1857, he took charge of the erection of the fortifications on Alcatras Island, in the Bay of San Francisco, California. In August, 1861, he was detailed to superintend the construction of the

fortifications of Boston Harbor. On the 12th of November, of the same year, Captain McPherson was, at the request of Major-General Halleck, appointed an additional aid-de-camp, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and, on reporting to him at St. Louis, was assigned to engineer duty on his staff. Lieutenant-Colonel McPherson served as chief engineer on General Grant's staff, at Forts Henry and Donelson, and at Shiloh, and was brevetted major in the regular army for the two former and lieutenant-colonel for the latter. On the 1st of May he was promoted to be additional aid-de-camp, with the rank of colonel, and served on General Halleck's staff as chief engineer of the army before Corinth. He was soon afterwards promoted to be brigadier-general of volunteers, from May 15th, 1862. After serving under Grant as general superintendent of the military railways in the Depart-· ment of the Tennessee and upon the staff of that general in the battle of Iuka, he saw his first service in command of troops early in October, when, with a division, he fought his way through the rebel General Price's lines, then investing Corinth, marched in to the relief of the garrison, and the next day joined in the attack and pursuit of the enemy. In recognition of his continued meritorious services, he was, upon General Grant's request, promoted to be a major-general of volunteers on the 8th of October, 1862. In December, 1862, he was assigned to the command of the Seventeenth Army Corps. He was appointed a brigadier-general in the regular army, to date from the capture of Vicksburg. His share in the campaign which resulted in the conquest of the Mississippi River, in the battles of Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, and Champion's Hill, and in the siege of Vicksburg, we have already noticed, as well as his subsequent assignment to the command of the district of Vicksburg, and the control of operations on that part of the river, and his part in Sherman's Meridian raid. He was tall in person, being over six feet in height, well proportioned and erect; easy and agreeable in his manners; frank in conversation; accessible to all; gallant and dashing in action; regardless of danger;

strictly honorable in all his dealings with men and with the Government.

Schofield, young but matured, well poised, thoroughly scientific by education, thoroughly practical by contact with men, habituated to command; McPherson, in the full flower of his life, bold and enthusiastic, just emerging from a complete mastery of the science of defensive war into the wider field of the offensive, trained to command under the eye, and by the example of Grant and Sherman; Thomas, the ripe growth of years and experience, of balanced and crystallized mind, strong and patient, steadfast and prudent, a true soldier, no genius, but a master of his profession, exhaustive in preparation, deliberate in action, ponderous and irresistible in execution: such were the men upon whom, under the leadership of Sherman, the destiny of the campaign was to rest.

On the 25th of March, Sherman set out to inspect his command, and prepare it for action. He visited Athens, Decatur, Huntsville, and Larkin's Ferry, Alabama; and Chattanooga, Loudon, and Knoxville, Tennessee. Meeting General McPherson at Huntsville, General Thomas at Chattanooga, and General Schofield at Knoxville, he arranged with them in general terms the lines of communication to be guarded, and the strength of the columns and garrisons, and fixed the first of May as the date when every thing throughout the entire command was to be ready for a general movement. Leaving the department commanders to complete the details of organization and preparation, Sherman returned to his headquarters at Nashville, to look after the vital question of supplies. Two parallel lines of railway from the Tennessee River on the east, and a third line from the Ohio at Louisville, bring supplies to Nashville. Thence by the Nashville and Decatur Railroad they are carried south to Decatur, and by the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad southeast to Chattanooga, passing through Huntsville, Stevenson, and Bridgeport. The Memphis and Charleston Railroad forms the base of a triangle, one hundred and twenty-one miles from Decatur to Chattanooga; from near Decatur to Bridgeport it lies north of the Tennessee.

Thus in case of accident or destruction to either of the direct lines, there was generally communication by the circuitous route, and during the season of navigation the Tennessee River added a third. The railways were in fine condition, in spite of the repeated injuries inflicted upon them by the enemy's cavalry in their frequent raids, but the people in East Tennessee were so impoverished that the Union commanders had hitherto felt obliged to issue rations to them from the military stores. Sherman at once found that the army and the people could not both be fed by the railways. The army must be supplied, must remain, and must move forward; the people could bring supplies by private means or could migrate to other parts of the country. Sherman's first duty was the success of his army. He accordingly issued orders stopping the issue of stores to the citizens, and made strenuous exertions to increase the carrying capacity of the railways. "At first," he says, in his official report of the campaign," my orders operated very hardly, but the prolific soil soon afforded early vegetables, and ox-wagons hauled meat and bread from Kentucky, so that no actual suffering resulted, and I trust that those who clamored at the cruelty and hardships of the day have already seen in the result a perfect justification of my course." By the 1st of May the storehouses at Chattanooga contained provisions for thirty days, the ammunition-trains were fully supplied, the re-enlisted veterans had come forward, and all was ready.

On the 10th of April, Sherman received his final instructions from the lieutenant-general. From them he learned that Grant would march with the Army of the Potomac from Culpepper on the 5th of May, against Lee. Sherman was to move against Johnston at the same time, with Atlanta as his immediate objective. He immediately replied, giving the details of his plans, and concluding:

"Should Johnston fall behind Chattahoochee, I would feign to the right but pass to the left, and act on Atlanta or its eastern communications, according to developed facts. This is about as far ahead as I feel disposed to look; but I would

ever bear in mind that Johnston is at all times to be kept so busy that he cannot in any event send any part of his command against you or Banks. If Banks can at the same time carry Mobile and open up the Alabama River, he will in a measure solve a most difficult part of my problem-provisions. But in that I must venture. Georgia has a million of inhabitants. If they can live, we should not starve. If the enemy interrupt my communications, I will be absolved from all obligations to subsist on my own resources, but feel perfectly justified in taking whatever and wherever I can find. I will inspire my command, if successful, with my feelings, and that beef and salt are all that are absolutely necessary to life; and parched corn fed General Jackson's army once, on that very ground."

On the 27th of April, Sherman issued orders to all the troops that were to form part of the moving columns to concentrate towards Chattanooga, and on the 28th removed his headquarters thither.

On the morning of the 6th of May the Army of the Tennessee was near Gordon's Mill, on the Chickamauga Creek, the Army of the Cumberland at and near Ringgold on the railway, and the Army of the Ohio near Red Clay on the Georgia line, directly north of Dalton. It had been Sherman's desire and intention to move with one hundred thousand men and two hundred and fifty guns; fifty thousand men in the Army of the Cumberland, thirty-five thousand in that of the Tennessee, and fifteen thousand in that of the Ohio. His actual force was ninety-eight thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven men, and two hundred and fifty-four guns, distributed as follows:

Army of the Cumberland.-Infantry, 54,568; artillery, 2,377; cavalry, 3,828: total, 60,773; guns, 130.

Army of the Tennessee.-Infantry, 22,437; artillery, 1,404; cavalry, 624: total, 24,465; guns, 96.

Army of the Ohio.-Infantry, 11,183; artillery, 679; cavalry, 1,697 total, 13,559; guns, 28.

A. J. Smith's and Mower's divisions, which were to have