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rally, the Union forces were ultimately forced back with great slaughter. Fifteen hundred men in grey and blue, found their graves within the crater formed by the explosion.*

On the 7th of August, General Sheridan was placed in command of the Department of Washington and the Shenandoah, and the army under his command was strengthened. The rebel army under Early was encamped on the west bank of the Opequon Creek, and the Union army under Sheridan in front of Berryville. So disastrous would have been a defeat to the Union cause, laying open to the enemy, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, that General Grant hesitated in allowing the impetuous, confident, and yet careful Sheridan to make an attack. On the 15th of September, Grant visited Sheridan, and became so well satisfied of his ability to whip the enemy, that he says, "I saw there were but two words of instructions necessary: 'Go in!"" t

Early on the morning of the 19th of September, Sheridan attacked Early, and after a bloody battle lasting until 5 P. M., he defeated him, capturing several thousand prisoners, and five pices of artillery. He pursued Early to the passes of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and destroying the Virginia Central Railroad, returned and took position behind Cedar Creek, near Strasburg. In marching back General Sheridan says, "the whole country from the Blue Ridge to the North Mountain has been made entirely untenable for a rebel army."

Early having been reënforced, again returned to the Valley, and on the 9th of October, there was an encounter between his and Sheridan's Cavalry in which the rebels were defeated with the loss of eleven pieces of artillery and 350 prisoners.

On the morning of the 19th of October, Early, under cover of darkness and fog, crossed the mountains, surprised (in the absence of Sheridan,) and turned the left flank of his army,

*"For some cause, the assaulting column failed to advance promptly to the ridge beyond. Had they done this, there is every reason to believe that Petersburg would have fallen. Thus terminated in disaster what promised to be the most successful assault of the campaign."- Grant's Report, p. 14.

+ Grant's Report, p. 17.

capturing batteries which enfiladed the whole Union line. The Union troops fell back with heavy loss and in confusion; but were finally rallied between Middletown and Newtown. At this juncture, Sheridan, who had been at Winchester and there heard the heavy firing, came forward at full speed, and arrived upon the field.* His presence inspired his troops with fresh courage and enthusiasm. Passing rapidly along the line where his soldiers could see him, his presence was equal to a reënforment of thousands of troops. He arranged his lines just in time to repulse a heavy attack of the enemy. Immediately assuming the offensive, he attacked with great vigor, defeating the enemy with great slaughter, retaking the guns and prisoners captured by Early, and capturing most of his artillery. The wreck of Early's army escaped during the night. Thus ended the war in the Valley of the Shenandoah. No further attempt to menace Washington and Baltimore, nor to invade the North through this valley was ever afterwards made.

This ride of Sheridan to the field was the occasion of an ode, certainly one of the most spirited of the war, written by Thomas Buchanan Read, from which I extract the following:

SHERIDAN'S RIDE.

Up from the South at break of day,

Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,

The affrighted air with a shudder bore,

Like a Herald in haste to the Chieftain's door,

The terrible grumble and rumble and roar,

Telling the battle was on once more,

And Sheridan twenty miles away!

But there is a road from Winchester town,

A good, broad highway leading down;

And there, through the flush of morning light,

A steed, as black as the steeds of night,

Was seen to pass as with eagle's flight

As if he knew the terrible need,

He stretched away with his utmost speed;
Hills rose and fell-

But his heart was gay,

With Sheridan fifteen miles away.

Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering south,
The dust, like the smoke from the cannon's mouth,
Or the trail of a comet, sweeping faster and faster,
Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster:

The heart of the steed and the heart of the master
Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls,
Impatient to be where the battle-field calls;
Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play,
With Sheridan only ten miles away.

He

General Grant pressed the enemy in Petersburg. gradually extended his lines south and west, seeking to cut the railroads from that direction. On the 29th of September, Major General Ord landed north of the James, and captured Fort Harrison and fifteen pieces of artillery. During the autumn, the vast armies of Grant and Lee, lay opposite each other in their lines around Petersburg, with frequent skirmishes and often severe battles, but with no decisive results. Cavalry raids and other means for interrupting the enemy's lines of communications and such demonstrations as would prevent the rebels from detaching his forces to any other point, constituted the principal operations of the army of General Grant.

The enemy's resources were being rapidly exhausted. The loyal States were filling up a call made by the President on

Under his spurning feet the road
Like an arrowy Alpine River flowed,
And the landscape sped away behind
Like an ocean flying before the wind;

And the steed like a bark fed with furnace ire,
Swept on with his wild eyes full of fire.

But lo! he is nearing his heart's desire

He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray,

With Sheridan only five miles away.

The first that the General saw were the groups

Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops;

What was done-what to do-a glance told him both,

Then striking his spurs with a terrible oath

He dashed down the line 'mid a storm of huzzas

And the wave of retreat checked its course there, because

The sight of the master compelled it to pause.

With foam and with dust the black charger was gray;

By the flash of his eye and his red nostrils' play

He seemed to the whole great army to say,

I have brought you Sheridan all the way
From Winchester down to save the day.

Hurrah! hurrah for Sheridan!
Hurrah! hurrah for horse and man!
And when their statues are placed on high
Under the dome of the Union sky,
The American soldier's Temple of Fame-
There with the glorious General's name,
Be it said in letters both bold and bright
Here is the steed that saved the day!
By carrying Sheridan into the fight
From Winchester twenty miles away.

the 18th of July, for 500,000 men. General Grant, on the 13th of September, 1864, telegraphed to the Secretary of War:

"We ought to have the whole number of men called for by the President, in the shortest possible time. Prompt action in filling up our armies will have more effect upon the enemy than a victory over them. They profess to believe the draft cannot be enforced. Let them be undeceived."

CHAPTER XXIV.

SHERMAN'S ATLANTA CAMPAIGN, AND GRAND MARCH TO THE SEA.

SHERMAN'S ADVANCE ON ATLANTA-BISHOP POLK KILLED-McPHERSON KILLED-SHERMAN TAKES ATLANTA-CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN SHERMAN AND HOOD, AND SHERMAN AND THE MAYOR OF ATLANTA-HOOD'S ARMY MARCHES NORTH, AND IS DEFEATED AT NASHVILLE-SHERMAN'S GRAND MARCH TO THE SEAHE TAKES FORT MCALLISTER, AND SAVANNAH-THE ALABAMA -MOBILE CAPTURED THE NIAGARA FALLS CONFERENCE—THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

66

YENERAL William T. Sherman began his brilliant campaign against Atlanta in the middle of May 1864. To reach that objective point he was compelled to pass from the north to the centre of the great State of Georgia, forcing his difficult path through mountain defiles and across great rivers, overcoming or turning formidable entrenched positions defended by a veteran army, commanded by a cautious and skillful commander. The campaign opened on the 6th of May, and on the 2d of September, the Union forces, entered Atlanta."

General Sherman, in his own nervous language, describes his campaign in his Field Order No. 68, dated Atlanta, September 8th 1864:

"On the 1st of May our armies were lying in garrison, seemingly quiet, from Knoxville to Huntsville, and our enemy lay behind his rocky-faced barrier at Dalton, proud, defiant and exulting. He had had time since Christmas, to recover from his discomfiture on the Mission Ridge, with his ranks filled, and a new Commander-in-chief, second to none in the Confederacy in reputation for skill, sagacity and extreme popularity. All at once our armies assumed life and action, and appeared before Dalton. Threatening Rocky Face, we threw ourselves upon Reseca, and the Rebel army only escaped by the rapidity of his retreat,

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