the rear, cut the wires of the telegraph and started for the sea, which he must reach or perish.

But before we follow the path of this enterprising soldier, let us see what were the fortunes of Hood. Thomas was being strengthened. Hood, following Schofield, who was marching towards Thomas, attacked him at Franklin, but was repulsed with serious loss. Thomas and Schofield formed a line of battle in front of Nashville, and, on the 15th of January, Thomas attacked Hood, and after a fierce and bloody conflict, continuing through two days, the Confederates broke and fled in confusion, the Union army capturing several thousand prisoners, and a vast amount of small arms and artillery. The soldiers of Hood were scattered or captured, and never again appeared in the field as an army organization. Some fragments of his army escaped, and under Johnston, surrendered to Sherman in the spring of 1865, at the final surrender of Johnston.

Where now was Sherman? Jefferson Davis prophesied that Sherman's army, then in the heart of the Confederacy, would meet the fate of the army of Napoleon when it invaded Russia. "Our cavalry and our people," said the rebel leader, "will harass and destroy this army, as did the Cossacks that of the French, and the Yankee General, like Napoleon, will escape with only a body guard."

But this "Yankee General," at whom Davis so arrogantly sneered, marched at pleasure through his Confederacy, and soon Davis himself, as the result, became first a fugitive, and then a captive, and his empire based on slavery crumbled into ruins.

Sherman marched eastward towards Macon, destroying railroads and everything which could be of service to the Confederacy. He reached Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia, in November, without any serious opposition. By the 12th of December he had reached and invested Savannah. Lincoln had sent Admiral Dahlgren with a fleet, to find and coöperate with Sherman. To open communication with the fleet it was necessary to capture Fort McAllister, which

commanded the approaches from the sea on the south side of the city. On the 13th of December, General Hazen assaulted and captured the Fort, a boat was sent to the fleet, General Sherman went on board, and sent a despatch to Washington announcing his arrival and his complete success. On the 20th, Hardee, in command of Savannah, abandoned the city, Sherman took possession, and sent to the President a despatch saying: "I present to you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty guns, plenty of ammunition, and about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."

Thus ended this grand march to the sea, a part of the romance of history. With the overwhelming force of the avalanche Sherman descended from the North, crushing everything in his path from the mountains to the sea. And now it only remained for this Northwestern army to turn again to the North, and, coöperating with the veterans of Grant, to crush the remaining fragments of the rebellion.

Nothing occurred during the war which more incensed the American people than the ravages upon their commerce by English built cruisers sailing under the rebel flag. Avoiding armed antagonists, they long roamed the sea with impunity, robbing and destroying American merchantmen, and finding refuge and protection, and often supplies, in neutral ports, especially those of Great Britain. Among the most destructive of these cruisers were the Alabama, the Florida, and the Georgia. Early in June, 1864, the Alabama, after a successful cruise, put in to Cherbourg, France. The Kearsarge, Captain John A. Winslow, immediately sailed for that port, and waited for the Alabama to put to The Alabama, having made the most careful preparation for the conflict, on the 19th of June steamed out of the harbor to meet her foe. As she came out she opened fire at long range. The Kearsarge made no reply, but steamed directly for her antagonist. Arriving at close quarters, she opened a tremendous fire, and in a short time the Alabama surrendered.

sea.

Captain Semmes, her commander, and her

other officers abandoned their ship, and were picked up and carried to England by the English yacht Deerhound. The Alabama in a few moments went down, even before all the wounded could be saved. Of this gallant fight, Admiral Farragut, in a letter to his son, says: "It was fought like a tournament in full view of thousands of French and English, with full confidence on the part of all but the Union people that we would be whipped.

*

*

I would sooner have fought that fight than any ever fought on the ocean." The Florida and the Georgia were both captured during the year. Neither the sinking of the Alabama, nor the payment by the English government to the Americans of the Alabama claims, have entirely removed from the people of this republic their indignation towards the English for their unfriendly conduct in permitting, while professing friendship to our government, the Alabama and other rebel cruisers to be fitted out in their ports.

In the same summer of 1864, Admiral Farragut was in command of the national squadron off Mobile. The city was supposed to be able to defy any attack. It was defended by Forts Gaines, Morgan, and Powell, by water batteries and earth-works, by torpedoes, and by the iron-clad ram Tennessee, which it was supposed could destroy any fleet which should attempt its capture. But with Farragut there was nothing impossible. He made his preparations for attack on the 5th of August. "Strip your vessels and prepare for the conflict," said he. As he went into close action, the grand old Admiral stood in the port-rigging of the flag-ship, a few ratlins up, standing on, and steadying himself by the ropes, and, as the smoke increased, he ascended the rigging step by step, until he found himself above the futtock-bands, and holding on to the shrouds. Captain Drayton, seeing the perilous position of the Admiral, and seeing that if wounded he would fall into the sea, sent a sailor with a line to secure him. The sailor took a lead line, and fastening it around the Admiral, made it fast to the shrouds. "For," said the

1. See Life of Farragut, p. 403.

sailor, "I feared he would fall overboard if anything should carry away, or he should be struck." And thus lashed to the shrouds, in a position above the smoke, and where he could see the fight, the Admiral fought the most brilliant naval battle of the war. Captain Craven, of the Tecumseh, eager to engage the Tennessee, pressed rapidly on, struck a torpedo, and went down with nearly all on board. Farragut, from his lofty position, saw his brave comrades go down by his side, and at the same moment the Brooklyn, leading the fleet, and discovering the line of torpedoes across the channel, began to back water.

"What's the trouble?" was shouted through a trumpet to the Brooklyn.

66

Torpedoes," was shouted back in reply.

"Damn the torpedoes!" said Farragut.

"Go ahead, full speed," he shouted to his own captain. And away went the flag-ship, the Hartford, passing the Brooklyn, and leading the fleet to victory,' at a moment when hesitation would have been fatal. This brilliant victory by Farragut was followed by the surrender of Mobile, and the forts, on being invested by General Granger, soon also surrendered.

The President issued a proclamation of thanksgiving and gratitude to God. He was now buoyant with hope, and began to realize an early termination of the war.

1. Life of Farragut, p. 417.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE SECOND TERM.

LINCOLN RENOMINATED AND RE-ELECTED.— HIS ADMINISTRATION. PEACE CONFERENCE. GREELEY AND THE REBEL EMISSARIES. - BLAIR'S VISIT TO RICHMOND.- HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE. SECOND INAUGURATION.

In the meanwhile, time and tide, and Presidential elections, wait for no man. Lincoln's first term was approaching its end, and the people began to prepare for the election.

There was not only an active, hostile party organization against the President, eager to obtain power, ready to seize upon and magnify the faults and errors of the administration, but there were also many ambitious men in the Union party, who, with their friends and followers, believed the best interests of the republic required a change. There were candidates for the Presidency among the generals, whom the President had been compelled by his sense of duty to relieve of command, and even in his Cabinet was an eager aspirant for the White House. The attention of all the world was directed to this approaching election.

Occurring in the midst of this tremendous civil war, it was regarded as the most fearful ordeal to which our institutions could be subjected. Many candid and intelligent men did not believe we could pass through its dangers without anarchy and revolution. There were also elements of danger in secret and factious organizations which bold, ambitious, and unscrupulous men, sympathizing with the rebels, were ready to use for dangerous purposes. All thoughtful observers know that in time of war, and especially civil war,