and McDowell. They had frightened McClellan from Richmond without ever decidedly defeating his combined army. On the contrary, his troops often gained great advantages over the rebels, yet he would never follow up these successes and seize the fruits of victory; but always, after knocking the enemy down, would stop, call for re-enforcements, or run away from them.

Then came the hard fought campaign of Pope, when, if McClellan and Porter had loyally obeyed and heartily coöperated with Pope, the armies of McClellan, Pope, and Burnside would have been consolidated on the field of Manassas, and would have crushed the much smaller force of Lee. Then came the rebel march into Maryland, the battle of Antietam, a repulse of Lee which ought to have been a crushing defeat, followed again by the long delays of McClellan a dreary waste of time, and of inactive complaint. Then came McClellan's removal, Burnside's campaign, and the slaughter of Fredericksburg. Such is the sad story of the brave but badly commanded army of the Potomac to the close of 1862.

Burnside survived his terrible defeat; survived to render good but subordinate service on the field, and died a useful and respected senator in Congress from Rhode Island.

The progress of the Union armies was also checked in the West. Buell was forced back, and the rebel General Bragg entered Kentucky, and occupied Frankfort, Lexington, and other important positions. A provisional government was organized by the rebels at Frankfort. Louisville and Cincinnati were threatened and fortified. On the 8th of October, the battle of Perryville was fought. On the 25th, Buell was superseded by General Rosecrans.

Vicksburg, on the Mississippi, a strong position by nature, and fortified with skill, was still an insurmountable obstacle to the complete recovery by the Union troops of the Mississippi. Generals Sherman and McClernand, on the 29th of December, 1862, made a gallant assault upon the defences in the rear of this stronghold, but were repulsed

with serious loss. On the 31st of December, the Union army under Rosecrans fought the battle of Stone River, where there was great loss on both sides, but the rebels, under their able leader, Johnston, retreated to Murfreesboro.

The year 1862 closed in gloom. There had been vast expenditures of blood and treasure by the government, and great successes, yet the Union cause had suffered still greater defeats and many grievous disasters, and the hopes of the insurgents rose high.

The President was greatly depressed by the terrible defeat at Fredericksburg, and especially by the great and useless sacrifice of the lives of his gallant soldiers. The leading generals of the army of the Potomac were quarreling and abusing each other. Burnside demanded the peremptory removal of several of them, and among others that of Hooker, making this the condition of his retaining his own command. The Cabinet was divided, and its members denouncing each other. Faction ran high in Congress, and the committee on the conduct of war became censorious and abusive. The press grew bitter, arrogant, and denunciatory, Mr. Greeley in the New York Tribune demanding foreign intervention, and declaring to Raymond that he would drive Lincoln into it.'

Leading officers of the army went so far as to say that "both the army and the government needed a dictator."' During these gloomy days, in which it seemed that many of the leading men in civil and military life lost their heads, and were ready for almost any change, however wild, the President was calm, patient, tolerant of those who differed from him, and hopeful. At this crisis, when his generals were denouncing each other, his Cabinet quarreling and making combinations against him, Congress factious, foreign nations hostile and ready to recognize the Confederacy, and some in high position calling for a dictator, it is not too

1. Private Journal of Henry J. Raymond, printed in Scribner's Magazine, March, 1880.

2. See Letter of Lincoln to Hooker, dated January 26, 1863, quoted hereafter.

much to say that Lincoln bore on his Atlantean shoulders the fate of the republic, that his firm, vigorous hand saved the country from anarchy and ruin.

On the 26th of January, the President sent the following letter to General Hooker :

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C.,

January 26, 1863.

MAJOR GENERAL HOOKER.-General: I have placed you at the head of the army of the Potomac. Of course I have done this upon what appear to me to be sufficient reasons; and yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to which I am not satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave and skillful soldier, which of course I like. I also believe that you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable if not indispensable quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm; but I think that, during General Burnside's command of the army, you have taken counsel of your ambition, and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country, and to a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army and the government needed a dictator. Of course, it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain success can be dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticizing their commander and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now, beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but, with energy and sleepless vigilance, go forward and give us victories.

Hooker passed three months in preparation, and then suffered the terrible defeat of Chancellorsville, and again was the brave army of the Potomac beaten by superior generalship. Among the misfortunes of the rebels in this battle was the death of their most brilliant soldier, Stonewall Jackson. It was the nature of Mr. Lincoln to do full justice

to his enemies. His heart was touched by the death of Jackson, and he said to a friend' who praised the dead: "I honor you for your generosity to one who, though contending against us in a guilty cause, was a gallant man. Let us forget his sins over his fresh made grave."

1. Col. J. W. Forney, editor.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE TIDE TURNS.

THE CONSCRIPTION.- WEST VIRGINIA Admitted.— THE WAR POwERS. SUSPENSION OP HABEAS COrpus.- CasE OF VALLANDIGHAM.-GRANT'S CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG.—Gettysburg.— LinCOLN'S SPEECH.

We now approach the turning point in this great civil war. Up to 1863, the fortunes of the conflict had been so varied; victory and defeat had so alternated, that neither party to the struggle could point to anything absolutely decisive. After the Union defeats at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the world of spectators seemed to think the probabilities of success were with the rebels. But in the summer of 1863, the tide turned, and a series of successes followed the national armies, which rendered their triumph only a question of time. Before entering upon a narration of these successes, we must turn for a brief space from the camp and battle field to the halls of Congress.

During this entire conflict, public opinion was guided, and largely controlled, by the pen and the tongue of the President. No voice was so potent as his, either in Congress or elsewhere, to create and guide public opinion. His administration was continually assailed by the democratic party, and criticised, often with asperity and injustice, by the leading members of his own party. The great leaders of the press were fault-finding, unjust, and often unfriendly. This threw upon him, in addition to all his other great difficulties and cares, the burden of explaining and defending the measures of his administration. He made many speeches,